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A PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCE 




A PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCE 

A MAN WORKS FOR HELP 
WITH PERSONALITIES 
IN THE WIDER LIFE 


A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE RELATED BY 

WILLIAM C. COMSTOCK 



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BOSTON 

RICHARD G. BADGER 

THE GORHAM PRESS 










Copyright, 1923 , by Richard G. Badger 


All Rights Reserved 


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Press of 

J. J. Little & Ives Company 
New York, U. S. A. 


©C1A711415 

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Cl If I 


CONTENTS 


PART I 

PACK 

A Psychical Experience. 9 

PART II 

Extracts from the Word, with Comment of 

My Own.31 

PART III 

I Will.87 

PART IV 

Personality .loi 

PART V 

Optimism and Faith.115 










A PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCE 




A PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCE 


I 


A PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCE 

B elief in the fact of intercourse between 
the world of men and the world of those 
who were men is to-day firmly established in the 
minds of many by proofs which for them eliminate 
the possibility of doubt And among the believ¬ 
ers are some whose names are known all over 
the world. 

It is natural that the more serious-minded be¬ 
lievers should wish (I had almost said demand) 
that communications from the other world should 
bring words of value to the thought, and to the 
lives of men who are still on earth. 

Belief in the fact of intercourse between the 
two worlds involves, of course, faith in the con¬ 
tinuance of personal life after bodily death, and 
it should not be beyond credence that the personal¬ 
ities who were on earth Voltaire, Sir Isaac New¬ 
ton, William Herschel, Martin Luther, Hume, 

9 





10 A Psychical Experience 

George Washington, Bishop Wilberforce, John 
Milton, Montaigne, can talk to men on earth if 
others can. 

And this writer asserts with as firm a belief 
as that he lives that those very personalities 
named have talked to him, and through him to 
men, for an avowed and definite purpose. 

Let me tell a plain, straightforward tale of how 
it came about. 

I have been for more than fifty years, and am 
still, a business man. In the summer of 1902 I 
lost my wife. We had always been very closely J 
united through our married life, and to lose her 
was a terrible blow for me. 

We had seldom talked of what was called 
spiritualism, but when we chanced to da so we 
agreed that communication to men from the other 
world was improbable, to say the least. Judge of 
my surprise then, when, eighteen months after my 
wife left me, one who had been her friend told me 
that she had a message for me from her. I was 
utterly astonished, but, of course, asked for the 
message. That message was so like what she 
would send me if she could that I inquired where 
and how it was received, and said that it would be 
my purpose to find out whether it could be true 
that I might have the happiness of messages from 
my wife. 


II 


A Psychical Experience 

The psychic through whom the first message 
came lived in a neighboring state, and to her 
table I went as often as I might, hoping, but 
doubting. It was a year and a half before I was 
fully convinced, and I was not convinced till all 
the tests which I set up, tests which the psychic 
could not possibly know, were satisfied. I was 
helped by two or three visits to another psychic 
in Chicago. To this psychic I never gave even 
my name, yet at this table that which I had heard 
at the first table was confirmed. So, finally I was 
convinced that the messages were genuine. I 
have never been to any other than these two 
tables. 

At the table of the first psychic Dr. Coulter, 
who had been her “guide” since her childhood 
(I think “guide” is the proper word), introduced 
himself to me. He is the same Dr. Coulter who 
afterward, through this same psychic, did such 
wonderful work in England during the late war, 
establishing one of the most important hospitals 
in London, which was given his name. 

Dr. Coulter talked to me each time I went to 
the table, and one day suggested that I read 
“Myers’ Book”. The psychic could not tell me 
what the title of Myers’ book was, but I found 
through a friend in Chicago that he must mean 
Prof. F. W. H. Myers’ work entitled “Human 


12 A Psychical Experience 

Personality, and Its Survival of Bodily Death.” 
I read the book with interest, and particularly the 
part “Automatic Writing,” of which I had never 
before heard or read. This suggested to me the 
possibility that I myself might be sufficiently sus¬ 
ceptible to do automatic writing. I asked Dr. 
Coulter, and he said. Yes. 

I tried it, and, after a few trials my hand began 
to write without volition of my own. But that 
writing was a bitter disappointment. There was 
some writing that would be considered very curi¬ 
ous—diagrams and cryptograms, and changes of 
script—but that was not what I sought. Some¬ 
times a few words would be like a real message, 
but on the whole it was completely foreign to the 
character of those for whom I wished to write. 
As a whole, it was trifling, and sometimes vile and 
vicious. It was all what was called automatic 
writing, in which my hand was moved by some 
force not my own volition, in the writing of every 
word. I was sadly disappointed, and could not 
understand what was the matter. Still, I per¬ 
sisted, hoping for something better. The vicious¬ 
ness increased until I thought I must give it up, 
lest it drive me out of my mind. Then one day, 
when it had been particularly vicious, I said “That 
ends it. I am not getting what I sought, and I 
will not risk myself any further.” I started for 


13 


A Psychical Experience 

a walk. As I went out of the door I was sur¬ 
prised to be greeted by a friend who never walked 
when she could avoid it. She said, “I thought I 
should meet you, and I think you need my help. 
Come walk with me and tell me your troubles.” I 
did so. Then she said “Don’t you know what the 
matter is? The Diaccoes have got hold of you.” 
I said “What do you mean by Diaccoes? I never 
heard of them.” 

“Did you not?” she asked. “They are the 
tricksy spirits, who love to make a fool of any¬ 
one of whom they can get hold, and even would 
love to drive him crazy if they could.” 

“Oh,” I said. “Is that all? That takes away 
all my fear. Now I’ll go back and fight till I 
beat them.” 

I began the writing again, and gradually the 
viciousness disappeared, and with it the automa¬ 
tism. Dr. Coulter had gradually taught me to 
write the words that I heard with my mental ear, 
but, when I heard anything that was vicious, or 
that I knew would not be said by my wife or by 
him, to refuse it wholly, close my mind for the 
time, and after a bit resume my mental listening. 
Then one day Dr. Coulter told me “That inter¬ 
ruption which troubled us* has been overcome, and 
we will have no more of it.” And to this day we 
never have had it. 


14 A Psychical Experience 

At last I was getting real messages. I was 
sure that some of them were right, and happy to 
be sure of those. But there was much of which 
I was not quite sure, and I felt that my mental 
hearing was faulty, since I made many mistakes. 

I went when I could to the psychic’s table in the 
other city, and Dr. Coulter there eliminated the 
errors in my writing. 

Gradually, after months passed, the mistakes 
became fewer, and the messages from my wife 
and from Dr. Coulter became better and better. 
Still, though they made me happy, they were sim¬ 
ple messages, and there was nothing of other than 
personal interest in them. 

Then, one afternoon at the psychic’s table. Dr. 
Coulter, in beautifully chosen words, offered me a 
work with him, which would be a help to men’s 
thinking. He did not press it upon me, but said 
I could have it if I chose. A complete surprise 
to me this offer was, but of course I said I would 
be glad to do the work if I could. 

That evening, in my room at the hotel. Dr. 
Coulter^ outlined the work which we afterwards 
did, and which is not yet completed, in a wonder- 

*Dr. Coulter permits me to say that, though he chose to do 
this work for help to men’s thinking under his name in his last 
incarnation, he was Voltaire, and the work was partly in rep¬ 
aration for his misleading men by some of his thought when he 
was Voltaire. 


A Psychical Experience 15 

ful message. He said that I had chosen wisely, 
and that, having chosen, I must never faint nor 
fail. He said that my part of the work would be 
the writing of a dictated word from the world 
where he lived which would be a help to men’s 
thought and to their lives. He would teach me 
how to work well, and the work would take me 
far beyond the simple phrases which I had thus 
far written. He told me to name an hour of the 
day or evening which would be least liable to in¬ 
terruption, and that we would work together at 
that hour each day. 

Then began a careful course of teaching. I 
was taught to write from telepathic dictation 
thus:— To listen for one word to be heard 
mentally and, while writing that, to listen for 
the next word. Mistakes were no longer per¬ 
mitted to remain in the writing, for when I made 
them they were at once corrected. I was taught 
to stifle my own thinking, and not to draw my 
own conclusions as to what was to follow that 
which had already been written, but, while fully 
conscious of myself and my surroundings, to hold 
my attention strictly to the word I was writing 
and the word to follow. I learned to hear cor¬ 
rectly wherever I might be; in my own room, on 
shipboard, in any room in any city of the United 
States or of Europe. In the writing room of a 


16 A Psychical Experience 

steamer crossing the Atlantic Dr. Coulter gave 
me the names of those who would associate with 
him in dictating the word which was to help men’s 
thoughts, and the books afterward written were 
dictated by those very persons he had named. 

And every day I had the happiness of a talk 
with my wife. She talked to me in the way de¬ 
scribed, and she said she could hear my thought, 
so it was a real talk. 

You can imagine how wonderfully interesting 
this was to me, and understand that I gave to the 
work my best. Think of it I The writing was 
generally done in the quiet of my room, with no 
human being present who could exercise telepathy 
upon me. I never knew beforehand what I would 
have to write any more than a secretary would 
know what letters he was to write from oral dic¬ 
tation. I sat down quietly at my desk or table, 
placed my pencil point at the first line of my 
paper, and waited till my fingers were moved by 
some force not my own volition, to form the first 
curve of the capital letter W. Then I knew that 
someone was ready to begin work. I did not 
know whether my fingers would be moved immedi¬ 
ately, or after a wait of one minute, or five, or 
occasionally even ten minutes. The moving of 
my fingers (as I have stated from no volition of 
my own), was, and is, the only automatism about 


17 


A Psychical Experience 

the writing. It was the signal that someone, I 
did not know who, was ready to dictate, and that 
I was to write my first name. Will. While writ¬ 
ing that I heard mentally the next word to be 
written, and so on the next, and the next, and I 
must hold my attention to those two words. I 
was to be a scribe exactly as a stenographer would 
be, only the dictation and my hearing of the word 
were mental. When the one dictating was 
through for the time he said Good night, and 
gave me his name to be signed to his dictation. 

Thus I was taught to do my work as an amanu¬ 
ensis. I had not knowledge of what the word 
for help to men’s thinking would be, no plan what¬ 
ever in my mind except to write the word as 
dictated. 

Then began a most wonderful experience. 
Without knowing at any time of writing what I 
was going to write, without any previous thought, 
and with firm purpose to prevent myself from 
thinking, I wrote, from word by word dictation, 
of Creation, of the development of the created 
universe; of man’s origin and development to 
thinking, willing, purposing selfhood; of God’s 
gift of immortality to the developed self; of 
man’s work as part of the purposed work of im¬ 
mortal life; of man’s free powers which are the 
immortal powers of immortal self; of God’s pur- 


18 A Psychical Experience 

pose for the lives which He made immortal 
selves. 

When enough had been written to make a type¬ 
written book of about a hundred and fifty pages, 
I was directed to have such a book put together, 
and to distribute it to the few who knew of, and 
were in sympathy with the work I was doing. 
Four of these typewritten books were made and 
distributed, and I thought that this was the work 
I was to do. 

Then, much to my surprise, Dr. Coulter told 
me they wished to review these four typewritten 
volumes, and select passages to be retained as 
part of a book to be published, and that each con¬ 
tributor to these four typewritten books would 
select and review his own passages. 

This work also was done in the manner which 
I have described above. I was merely the scribe 
writing from dictation. I did not know when I 
sat down to my work who would dictate, what 
passages he would select, nor whether he would 
change the passages selected. I worked as any 
scribe would who was instructed to pay attention 
to the word he was writing and the next word to 
be written. 

This work of selecting the passages being com¬ 
pleted, the dictation of additional passages was 
begun, and continued till Dr. Coulter announced 


19 


A Psychical Experience 

that the text of the book to be published was fin¬ 
ished, and that the passages would now be placed 
as they wished them to be placed. He named the 
book “Thought for Help from Those Who Know 
Men’s Need.” Then he divided it into parts and 
named the parts. Each thinker selected his pas¬ 
sages for each part. Dr. Coulter divided the 
parts into chapters, and each thinker selected his 
passages for the chapter. Then I was told to 
read the passages in each chapter to their author 
in the order of their writing. Of course I had 
adopted a system of notation which made this 
work not difficult. Each thinker placed his pas¬ 
sages in the order which he wished, saying after 
I had read to him a passage: “Make this number 
three—make this number six—make this number 
one” and so on. When he had placed them they 
were in logical order. Sometimes the thinker 
would say “Find passage so-and-so in chapter so- 
and-so and read it to me by sentences.” Perhaps 
that chapter had been put by as finished a week 
or more ago. I would find the passage and read 
by sentences, referring each sentence for his o. k. 
Perhaps he would say at the third or fourth sen¬ 
tence “In this sentence cut out this word, and put 
this one in its place.” The sentence was always 
bettered by the change. 

When all this work which I have described 


20 A Psychical Experience 

was done, Dr. Coulter directed me to publish the 
book. 

The literary style is unique, and not at all like 
anything I would have written myself. Probably 
with design that the very style should show that 
it was not my composition. 

In this same fashion three more books were 
written from dictation, and published in succeed¬ 
ing years. The whole forms a very complete, 
coherent, cheery and sensible Philosophy of Life, 
far more satisfying than any of men’s philoso¬ 
phies which I have read. And the authors de¬ 
clare that it is known by them from the wider 
knowledge of wider life than man’s life to be the 
true philosophy. 

Could any man write thus clearly, logically, 
consistently and wisely, under such circumstances 
as I have named, except from telepathic dicta¬ 
tion? 

Now I will call attention to the evident pur¬ 
pose not my own running through all this which 
I have related, a purpose patient, sustained, 
which would not be defeated by the interruption 
of others, or by my lack of ability. 

I, who had always rather ridiculed what was 
called spiritualism, received through a friend in 
whom I had confidence a message from my wife 
who had died eighteen months before. This mes- 


A Psychical Experience 21 

sage was so like her that I must find out whether 
it was a real message. To do this I went to the 
psychic’s table through whom the message was 
given. There I met Dr. Coulter, who helped to 
prove to me that I actually did receive messages 
from my wife. I do not know that my wife’s 
first message was part of Dr. Coulter’s purpose, 
but it was through Dr. Coulter’s help that I 
received that message which brought me to the 
table where I became acquainted with him, and 
he helped me to the belief that messages from the 
other world to this were not merely possible, but 
actual facts. 

Then one day Dr. Coulter told me to read a 
certain book, which drew my attention to auto¬ 
matic writing, of which I had never before heard, 
brought to me the thought that perhaps I might 
in that way get direct messages from my wife in 
the quiet of my room, and caused me to ask Dr. 
Coulter if I could learn to do automatic writing. 
To this question his reply was Yes. 

Then, after my unsatisfactory struggle with 
automatic writing and resolve to give it up, the 
meeting with the friend who explained to me the 
cause of my unpleasant experience, and who 
afterwards told me she was sent by Dr. Coulter 
to meet and help me. 

Then, by Dr. Coulter’s help, the gradual elimi- 


22 A Psychical Experience 

nation of both the interference and the automa¬ 
tism. The unpleasant experience did me no real 
harm, and introduced me to the method of writ¬ 
ing which Dr. Coulter wished to teach me. 

Then the instruction in writing from mental 
dictation until I was doing my work fairly well. 

Then, not through my own writing, but at the 
psychic’s table, in order that I might not think it 
an error of my own, the proposal of Dr. Coulter 
that I take up a work with him for the help of 
men’s thinking, which work I could accept or not, 
as I chose. 

Then, after my astonished acceptance (for I 
had never even dreamed of such a work, or that 
such a work could be done). Dr. Coulter’s talk 
to me at the hotel, outlining the future work, and 
his promise, if I would not faint nor fail, to teach 
me to write perfectly as an amanuensis. 

Then the instruction, careful, painstaking, pa¬ 
tient, which continued through many months and 
wherever I might be, whether at home or in any 
part of the world. 

Then the naming of those who would be his 
coadjutors in the work, that I might not be sur¬ 
prised by unexpected names when the actual work 
began. 

Then the dictation of the four small books to 
be typewritten. 


23 


A Psychical Experience 

Then the directions for the review of these 
books that the authors might select such portions 
as they wished to incorporate in a larger book 
to be published. 

Then the careful preparation of four books in 
succession for publication, all the- tremendous 
details of transcribing the texts, naming the books, 
dividing into parts and chapters, and review sen¬ 
tence by sentence, being dictated to my mental 
hearing word by word, as I have described above. 

And when the whole was completed it con¬ 
tained just such thought as it would be natural for 
thinkers who had helped men while they them¬ 
selves were men to give to help men now to live 
their lives rightly. 

Does not all this sequence of events, sugges¬ 
tions, and instructions, culminating in published 
books, indicate clearly a definite purpose? And 
it could not be my own purpose, for I know that 
I had no such purpose. My purpose through all 
this was to be a good scribe. 

I will call attention to another fact. In no 
way had my previous thinking prepared me for 
writing such books as I did write. 

After my graduation from college in 1867 I 
went immediately into business, and have con¬ 
tinued in business ever since. At College I went 
through the prescribed course in metaphysics, and 


24 A Psychical Experience 

then forgot it, as most college graduates do. My 
thought through the years that followed was the 
usual thought of a business man striving for busi¬ 
ness success. As a college-bred man I was natur¬ 
ally not averse to good literature, but my reading 
was rather promiscuous, and did not induce any 
deep thinking. My hard thinking was for my 
business. I could not have thought out the phil¬ 
osophy which I wrote if I tried, for I had no 
mental preparation for it, and no intention what¬ 
ever of ever doing such writing. And I would 
never have thought of such a work if it had not 
been proposed to me by Dr. Coulter. Further, I 
could not have done such a work as I have de¬ 
scribed by auto suggestion of sub-conscious mind, 
for no such thought was in my mind to be thus 
brought out. 

The logical conclusion from this is that the 
work was actually done, as I firmly believe, 
through telepathic dictation. And since there was 
at no time when I was working any human being 
present, or who could by any stretch of the im¬ 
agination be thought to be telepathing me, the 
logical conclusion is that the dictation was just 
what it claimed to be, from minds of personali¬ 
ties in the life beyond earth to my mind which 
they had trained to hear rightly. 


25 


A Psychical Experience 

Another thing—I was at no time in a trance, 
or a state of mental exaltation, but always in full 
and normal consciousness of myself, my surround¬ 
ings, and the work which I was doing. I simply 
gave to the mental dictation the same careful 
attention which a competent amanuensis would 
give to oral dictation, with just this difference 
that, while the writer from oral dictation might 
think whatever he chose, and draw any conclusion 
that he wished from a partially completed sen¬ 
tence, without interrupting the dictation or mak¬ 
ing any fault in his work, I must resolutely keep 
myself from thinking or drawing a conclusion, 
lest my mind be distracted from perfect hearing 
of the exact word to be written. 

Again—the name of the author of a passage 
dictated I did not choose. The name was dic¬ 
tated to me as any other word was. Very often 
I did not know who was talking till he said Good 
night and gave me his name. 

I have given an exact statement of facts. Am 
I not justified in my firm faith that I really 
worked as amanuensis for personalities in the 
other world? 

Those personalities, as I have said, named 
themselves. And to no one can it be more won¬ 
derful than to myself that Voltaire, Newton, 


26 A Psychical Experience 

Herschel, Luther, Hume, Washington, Bishop 
Wilberforce, Milton, Montaigne should choose 
me to be their scribe. 

Yet why not? When they were men they were 
thinkers whose thought was big and helpful to 
men. Now, in the wider world, being the same 
personalities, and remembering their work when 
they were men, what more natural than that they 
should wish from their wider knowledge to help 
men now living on earth to a clear appreciation 
of their value as immortal personal selves, to a 
clear understanding of the meaning of the self’s 
work on earth as part of the immortal life’s work, 
and to a better understanding of the relation of 
the finite created self to his Infinite Creator? 

And, finding a man whom they could use as 
their scribe, who was eager to do their work, 
what more natural than that they should educate 
him to do it rightly? 

And their work is what we should expect from 
the title which they gave their book—“Thought 
for Help from Those Who Know Men’s Need.” 
Reverent always when they speak of their Crea¬ 
tor, their word is a guide to the deeper thought 
that should help men to live their lives as their 
Maker would have them, and so prepare them¬ 
selves for the wider personal life in the world 
beyond earth. 


27 


A Psychical Experience 

They do not belittle the earth work, but de¬ 
clare that man’s earth work, whatever it may be, 
if well done and well finished, is of the utmost 
importance to his immortal life. 

And that work requires hard thought. The 
man’s work serves his man’s future. But it must 
also serve his life’s future, and so he must think 
not only for his man’s future, but for the worth 
of man’s life which serves the immortal self’s 
wider future. 

The work is help to thought, not only to 
thought of man’s work and man’s future, but also 
to that deeper thought which recognizes that life 
personal is more than the man, and is destined by 
its Creator, freedom from the littleness of earth, 
wider personal life, wider personal work and 
experience, and immortal growth in the broad 
universe which His Omnipotent purpose created 
to be its dwelling place, and its working place. 




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EXTRACTS FROM THE WORD, WITH 
COMMENTS OF MY OWN 


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II 


EXTRACTS FROM THE WORD, WITH 
COMMENTS OF MY OWN. 

WILL quote verbatim the opening word of 
the first book: 

We who know the universe as men cannot hope that 
what we tell may help men to understand better God’s 
universe. Man’s vision will not let him discern the con¬ 
fines of God’s universe. Vast to nearly infinity, it 
stretches far, far beyond the reach of any telescope that 
man may construct. Vast to nearly infinity, and world- 
peopled to its confines. Vastness such as this is beyond 
man’s comprehension. Vastness such as this bewilders 
his mind, destroys his understanding, makes him hesitate 
to believe. With man vision is belief. Vision wanders 
over the starry sky, reaching millions on millions of miles 
into space, and everywhere it views worlds rolling cease¬ 
lessly; worlds, suns, planets that march relentlessly for¬ 
ward, making their revolutions where ordered by their 
Creator, rolling with motion orderly, rushing with 
merciless speed forward in orbits ordained; making vi¬ 
sion and sense reel with wonder at this majestic universe. 
Stars which seem to twinkle like gems are vast worlds, 
worlds which compared with our little earth are huge, 
vast, incomprehensible. 

Vastness is a part of the universe that God created. 
Vast Himself, infinite in vastness, comprehending all, 

31 





32 A Psychical Experience 

making all subservient to His will, Omnipotent, Omnis¬ 
cient, Omnipresent, God Himself rules His vast uni¬ 
verse, holds it in the hollow of His hand, views its 
orderly motion ordained by Himself, satisfied with His 
work, pronouncing it very good. 

(Signed) Isaac Newton. 

I will ask here whether it would be possible 
for any man, with no previous thought, with no 
knowledge or intention whatever as to what he 
was going to write, with no selection of his own 
of a single word, and with his firm will stifling his 
own thinking, to compose this passage. And, 
with no human being near who could possibly dic¬ 
tate it to him orally or telepathically, with no 
name in his mind as its author, would it be pos¬ 
sible for any man to write it and sign it unless it 
was dictated by the very one who named himself 
as its author? 

Again from Newton; 

The words which tell of world formation in this 
volume we believe to be true. Matter whirling forms 
worlds thus:—Matter whirling causes friction; friction 
begets heat; whirling heated matter gathers into nodes 
which gather to themselves constantly more matter; thus 
is formed the nucleus of a world. Forming slowly, 
making of itself constantly a larger and denser mass, 
the node becomes a mass with form, with formation, 
with matter in condensation, matter heated to incan¬ 
descence through attrition between its moving particles. 
Heat thus begotten finishes by melting matter into mass. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 33 

finally making a nearly solid core which, still whirling, 
gathers to itself more incandescent matter. With this 
beginning was our world formed. 

When with lapse of untold ages heat, and attrition 
with heat, have melted into mass much matter, a world 
solid is developed. Finally a world habitable for inferior 
life is formed; then through more ages, ages of evolu¬ 
tion, the world becomes ready for life of man. The 
Will who made His universe wills when man shall be 
life upon worlds. 

Is this universe, which was the creation of God, itself a 
witness to its creation, not its evolution from matter 
undesigned, matter without will, matter irresponsible? 
Yes, surely. Men would find ultimate matter, and from 
that infer the worlds that make the universe without 
will of a Creator. From matter irresponsible could 
planets roll in space? Where find their motion, from 
matter irresponsible, or from will? Where find their 
form? From matter irresponsible making of itself form, 
or from Will to form from the matter worlds? Where 
find the light that makes day and night? From irre¬ 
sponsible matter shining of itself, or from Will to make 
light the means of dispensing life where life is in the 
worlds formed by Will. Where find life? Where could 
irresponsible matter find the life principle that is within 
men, plants, insects, beasts, life that knows itself, sentient 
life, thoughtful life, life with will, with wisdom, with 
prayer, with worship? Where find God in the life? 
Will irresponsible matter create of itself a mind that 
worships? From matter irresponsible could mind de¬ 
velop? Will irresponsible matter of itself develop mind 
to investigate itself? Will irresponsible matter develop 
mind that thinks, life that lives in full knowledge that it 
lives? Will matter without Will form of itself worlds 
that roll on ceaselessly, thus worshiping their Maker? 

Will this convince? I know not, but I wish to tell it, 


34 A Psychical Experience 

hoping that it will cause men to think. Would matter 
without Will be formed by law? Would matter make 
its own laws? 

Willed was the universe; willed were worlds; willed 
the matter from which they formed; willed their motion; 
willed the whole of God’s universe. 

This is testimony to the faith of Newton in 
God, the Creator and Ruler of His universe. It 
is supported by like testimony from all those 
whom I have named. 

Thus the philosophy of life which comes from 
the wider world is founded on God, Creator of 
all beside Himself, whose will governs all, whose 
purpose follows all that He created, God Om¬ 
nipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Infinite. And 
from the wider world comes the word that this 
is the only true foundation for men’s philosophy. 

Then follows concurrent testimony as to the 
development of life on worlds, and the develop¬ 
ment of man’s life, whose germ was with matter 
when matter was created, remaining undeveloped 
until worlds suited for his life were ready for it; 
whose germ is different from that of any other 
life; whose life was latest to develop on worlds 
because it is the highest created life; whose life 
inhabits man^s body only, and never the body of 
a beast. 

There is concurrent testimony that man’s body 


Extracts from the Wordy with Comments 35 

was developed as other animal bodies, by process 
of evolution, which is man’s name for God’s law 
of development; but that his life is man’s life 
only, different from his creation from any other 
life. 

God made man as He made no other life on earth. 
Man he has been always from his creation to now.^ 

Further— 

We believe man was made mortal, to be developed as 
man mortal, to be made immortal by God’s will when 
he was by development made ready for higher life. . . . 
Will who created worlds made man the inhabitant of 
earth. That Will, the Omnipotent Will of God, when 
He would brought to man the life that is to eternity. 
This we firmly believe. 

The man was self through all his development. . . . 
Through man’s life, different from that of any other 
life, he learned the wise use of those willed powers given 
to him as man. . . . The man individual is self. The 
soul is self individual made immortal. . . . Man made 
self immortal grows with spiritual growth. Man’s way 
of growth brings help to his spiritual nature. Made 
more than physical, he was willed mind that thinks way 
beyond the world he uses for dwelling place awhile. 
God willed his physical nature, his immortal self. He 
willed man more than physical nature. Man was made 
the being that rises to wider life. Made man he was, 
made life immortal of self he was by the Will that 
created the universe.^ 

* Miltiades, who chooses this name, but tells me he was Hume. 

* Dr. Coulter. 


36 A Psychical Experience 

Man willed was not from eternity, but was made. 
Life of man made by God was willed immortality to 
come, and the thought that life of man is from eternity 
must be wholly wrong.® 

But, though man is not from eternity, his life 
of self is to be the same self through eternity to 
come. God’s gift of immortality to the self is 
not a special creation, but the carrying out of His 
original purpose for the life of man, formed 
when He created that life. 

And to that life, when through His ordained 
way of development it reached fitness for the gift, 
God gave those powers of selfhood. Mind, Will, 
Purpose and Memory, which are adequate for the 
self’s use through all its life of immortality; 
which adapt themselves to the self’s needs in all 
stages of immortal life. Those powers are like 
in kind to His own Infinite Powers, but finite 
necessarily, since the created life must be finite. 

God purposes for the life which He created, 
and His purpose follows that life through eter¬ 
nity. Since He made that life personal, individ¬ 
ual self, the will and purpose of that life are 
personal, and therefore free. Then that life ful¬ 
fills the purpose of its Maker, which must be 
fulfilled since it is Omnipotent Purpose, by its 
own use of its own free will and purpose. 

* Dr. Coulter. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 37 

Since the self is willed immortality, and the 
earth life is the beginning of the immortal life of 
self, the earth life is the very childhood of the 
self, and the child self needs teaching. The les¬ 
son that the young self is to learn through the 
teaching of earth, and put into practice, is how 
to win personal growth in wisdom, ability, and 
character, through his own use of the personal 
powers which are given him for that purpose. 

The earth environment, where he lives in per¬ 
sonal and social relations with his fellow men, and 
the earth work of all kinds through which he 
learns to use his personal powers well if he thus 
chooses, are suited to this first stage of immortal 
selfhood. The resources of earth for man’s use, 
whose limits man has not found, are developed 
and utilized by man’s work of will and purpose. 
The aids to man’s memory, the records by writ¬ 
ing and printing press of his history and past ex¬ 
perience, which teach him wisdom for his present 
and his future, are found through his work for 
them. The thoughts of man’s mind, which range 
from the electron to the universe, are made big, 
and broad, and helpful through his work of his 
mind. 

Work is the man’s normal condition; work is the 
normal condition of life.^ 


^Dr. Coulter. 


38 A Psychical Experience 

God willed man, man’s work, man’s use of will and 
purpose for life’s growth. . . . Man’s life testifies God’s 
will. Willing his work, man is as God purposed. 
Looking way ahead, man does as God purposed. Man 
is in all the being God willed man to be.® 

And man is the immortal life in its childhood. 
Man’s powers,—mind, will, purpose, memory,— 
are his life’s powers. And those powers, whose 
limit man has never found, are adequate for the 
life’s use forever. Through the life’s earth expe¬ 
rience they receive their first teaching. Growth, 
progress, is God’s law for life; and His purpose 
is that by man’s work of his life’s powers his life 
of personal self is to achieve the growth that fits 
him, the self, for wider life in the world beyond 
earth. 

But man, being personal self, is free to use his 
life’s powers well or ill, as he chooses; and we 
know that many men do use them unwisely, vilely, 
wickedly. Does this condemn his life to punish¬ 
ment through eternity? Would such a thought be 
right? Would a good God, and we must think of 
Him as good, or our thought of Him is worthless 
to us, would a good God make the life free and, 
because it uses its freedom unwisely for a time, 
condemn it to eternal punishment? A thousand 
times, no. How then reconcile man’s wickedness 

* Miltiades. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 39 

with God’s goodness? Reincarnation of the life 
in man’s flesh on earth is the reply from the freed 
selves. 

Man works the earth work of life. Will he uses well 
or ill in that work. When his will weak finishes not 
well life’s work, God wills the life reincarnation in man. 
Man’s work teaches life much that helps when man’s 
work is finished. Reincarnation makes life wise, for the 
work that life does in man was purposed for life’s teach¬ 
ing. Many returns teach what life must learn. So 
reincarnation is help to life. . . . God made self im¬ 
mortal, and reincarnation is God’s gracious permission 
that self may redeem its errors, and work freedom finally.® 

Man’s life must have many incarnations on all worlds, 
as on ours. While life works the man’s work it uses 
man’s mortal body for working tool; clothed with mor¬ 
tality is immortal life on earth. When that work man, 
the life of self, has finished, the life leaves earth for 
wider life. For the work of man body physical life needs; 
when freed, that body life leaves on earth. When life 
is freed it uses body which is suited to the life then. 
Many lives are beyond reincarnation now, millions upon 
millions, countless millions, myriads of myriads, but God 
knows every one Himself, knows all His creatures as a 
father knows all his children."^ 

Reincarnations many will each self need for its finished 
work of earth. One short man’s life is not sufficient.® 

And reincarnation is, for the freed lives, not 
theory but experience. 

‘Dr. Coulter. 

' Milton. 

* Martin Luther. 


40 A Psychical Experience 

We who lived man’s life realize now that we lived it 
many times. That knowledge men have not. They think 
they remember sometimes other incarnations; they will 
remember, perhaps, dimly something not definite. We 
remember well. We know who we were, we know what 
our life was, we know what life helped us, what life 
harmed us. Men think sometimes of reincarnation as 
not true. We know it is true. We think while we live 
now over our past lives, remembering well their weak¬ 
ness and their strength. Knowing what those lives made 
us, we thank God. Reincarnation is God’s way for 
growing life to learn. Helped we were by each life, 
helped in some way. Man’s thought is man’s; his reali¬ 
zation of reincarnation is not full; ours is full; and we 
thank God while we work now for His goodness that 
permitted us those many lives. We tell this for help, 
hoping the words may reach man’s thought helpfully.® 

Man’s work we who were men remember. We know 
what helped us, know what harmed us in the life of 
man.^® 

Man’s life we had, man’s work we know, man’s weak¬ 
ness was ours. Thanks we give now for His will that 
gave us man’s life and work. We know now their 
meaning to our freed life.^^ 

Man does not remember the former reincarnations of 
himself; God willed that mercifully. Life remembers 
well.^® 

We worked as men, by the way God purposes, our 
w^orth for wider life. We live that wider life now, and 
we know that we were men.^® 

* Eleanora, my wife. 

“ Dr. Coulter. 

“ Miltiades. 

“ Dr. Coulter. 

“ Dr. Coulter 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 41 

These words from the other life give us the 
why of reincarnation, and show that reincarna¬ 
tion of the self in man’s flesh, which the freed 
lives know to be true, is a wise and reasonable 
belief for man, for that belief brings to men faith 
in the wisdom and love of God’s purpose for the 
lives whom He made His children. 

The created life is necessarily finite, for there 
can be but One Infinite, God Himself. He gave 
to the finite lives the best gift He could give them, 
personal selfhood. He willed to each life per¬ 
sonal powers like in kind to His own infinite 
powers, but necessarily finite. He purposes for 
each life growth through his own use of his willed 
personal powers. He purposes for each life per¬ 
sonal worth achieved by himself on earth which 
shall fit him for his first wider life beyond earth. 
God’s Will is Omnipotent, and that Will the finite 
life finally fulfills. 

But the finite life is not perfect, and the will of 
finite, personal life is necessarily free. Forced 
personal worth is an impossible thought. Then 
the finite, free self is liable to err, and not fulfill 
his Maker’s purpose this time of his life as man. 
Does a good Father then condemn him to eternal 
punishment? No. One man’s lifetime is but a 
breath in immortal life, and the good Father, 


42 A Psychical Experience 

seeing that the self whom He made finite and free 
has erred this time, gives him another opportu¬ 
nity; gives him all the opportunities that he 
needs, by further incarnations in man. He has 
given to each life personal will and purpose. He 
has given to each life thinking, reasoning mind, 
and to each life memory. Thus He has made 
each life able to learn through experience, and, 
taught by experience, each life does learn to fulfill 
God’s purpose of his own free choice. 

Does He make reincarnation a penalty? Per¬ 
haps. We know that penalty is sometimes the 
best teacher. God knows every one of His chil¬ 
dren, and His love gives to each one all the 
opportunities and all the teaching that he needs 
to learn wisdom, and achieve himself the worth 
that permits wider life. 

I use the word “achieve” designedly. Any¬ 
thing that is accomplished by the effort of a per¬ 
sonal self is an achievement. Business success is 
an achievement; a well-designed and well-made 
machine is an achievement; progress, growth is 
an achievement; the worth of a man is an achieve¬ 
ment. A finite personal self is not made perfect. 
This would be a humdrum world if men were all 
perfect. They would have no ambition, no hope, 
no regret, nothing to strive for. The Maker of 
Life (I say it reverently) knew better than to 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 43 

make finite personal selves perfect. But He did 
make them able to achieve the worth that finite 
beings may find by their own work for that worth. 

Then the way to wider life of personal self is 
by the work of man; work well done and well 
finished, whatever it may be; work of body, 
which is a tool suited to the life on earth; work 
of mind, will, memory, which are personal powers 
adequate to the life’s use on earth and forever. 

But the man, though made able to do so, does 
not always work well, and weakness is apt to 
beget weakness. Then the weak life needs help. 
And the Father of Life gives to His erring chil¬ 
dren, through renewed opportunity and experi¬ 
ence in man’s life on earth, the help that each one 
needs. 

Does He give them no further help than this? 
He gives them the help of willed thoughts. 

The thoughts willed for man’s help, thought of God, 
thought of life wider than man, thought of life to be 
immortal, are willed to man as life. We, the lives who 
were men, found those thoughts help. They were for 
us willed we know now.^* 

Mind that man has, life’s mind, willed mind, finds 
those thoughts that the Maker of Life purposes shall 
help forever. Man thinks of worship; that helps life. 
He thinks of Will Higher; that helps life; he thinks of 
life wider, for wider life thinks in him; that thought 


“ Miltiades. 


44 A Psychical Experience 

helps. The life willed thinks thought willed, works 
work willed, wins worth willed then. Man wins that 
which life’s Maker purposes through the means that the 
Maker gives.^® 

And still further help the Father of Life gives 
His children. 

When, through the development of mankind, 
men’s minds were ready for the thoughts which 
it would bring, God Himself, in Christ, showed 
men the perfect example of a perfect man’s life. 
Since Christ’s coming man’s thought is changed. 

Christ lived among men that His life should show 
them what worthy life of man is. Man was weak; 
Christ showed him how he might be strong. Man was 
wucked; Christ showed how he might be holy. Man 
lacked wisdom for his future after earth; Christ revealed 
to men the life of heaven, revealed to them by His resur¬ 
rection the hope of life immortal. Christ brought to 
men faith in immortal life after earth. Men till then 
had not that faith; it was Christ who brought it to 
man’s mind.^® 

Christ was God, we know it. We were witnesses to 
His life, witnesses to His miracles, witnesses to His 
resurrection, some of us. Perfect life as man His was, 
perfect as He Himself is perfect. We who know tell 
this to those who must know. Why should the Son of 
Man be thus perfect? None of His followers were thus. 
What purpose in being perfect but to show men what 
perfect life on earth is? Man He was, clothed with 
man’s body, with man’s infirmities, but God in His will. 

Dr. Coulter. 

“ Dr. Coulter. 


Extracts from the PFord, with Comments 45 

His strength, His perfection. Why share the little life 
of earth with imperfect men? Was His love that of 
man for man? No, love of God for His creatures it 
was that brought Christ to earth.^'^ 

When Christ came, the belief of few was that He was 
the promised Messiah. When He told men that He was 
God’s Son, they disbelieved. Man’s want of belief was 
natural, men had not yet been taught faith in God. 
Men were taught by Christ what faith is, were taught 
by Him faith in God, faith in man’s future, faith in the 
love of God, faith that by His coming all mankind was 
redeemed from sin. Man’s life was made wider then. 
God willed for man this advance. Man believing in 
God, believing in life immortal, thinking of the well 
being of all his future, was man made more perfect.^* 
When Christ was man He lived man’s life, with man’s 
work, man’s mind, with what belongs to life of man. 
While He was man He showed men how to live. Man’s 
life will be freer through the life of Christ on earth. 
Man’s life will be stronger for good because Christ with 
man’s will overcame evil and clung to the good. Man’s 
life will be better forever because Christ lived man’s life 
on earth.^® 

And yet further help the Wilier of Life gives 
to His children for whom He purposes worth 
won on earth that will fit them for wider life 
beyond earth. He gives them personal help when 
with honest prayer they ask His help. Mind, 
He does not force the self to be worthy. “Forced 
worth is impossible thought.” God’s purpose is 

Miltiades. 

“John Milton. 

“ Bishop Wilberforce. 


46 A Psychical Experience 

that every self win his worth by his own use of 
the means which God provides; and to that end 
He provides the teaching that each life needs, 
but He does not force the free will of personal 
self. 

Wholly free, not bound, is life’s will. Man, willed 
his free will, uses it finally for the worth Life’s Maker 
purposes, taught by weak use of free will, taught by 
wise use till, willing freely, knowing what weak use 
means, he wins freedom by his own free will.^° 

Yet while man is learning— 

Man’s weakness needs God’s help. Prayer that is 
honest will bring that help. Prayer not honest reaches 
not God’s throne. Help will be made that which the 
life needs. God helps the creatures He made willingly, 
but wills that through prayer man must seek His help. 
Prayer means help when honest; dishonest prayer falls 
dead. 

Let the lesson sink deep into your hearts that God 
knows better what is good for all who have being from 
Him than the weak beings themselves could. And let 
this, too, sink deep; man’s life needs help, and only 
through prayer to his Maker can he live rightly always. 
All that the soul needs of help while on earth or here 
will be given for the asking with honest prayer.^^ 

These passages which I have quoted are con¬ 
current testimony to the facts stated, and to the 

“ Miltiades. 

” Dr. Coulter. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 47 

firm faith held by “those who know.” Is it not 
such testimony as we might expect from those 
who have named themselves? They have prof¬ 
ited by the teaching which God willed for the self 
on earth; they remember their lives as men, and 
what each life taught them; they know the errors 
into which man’s free will often leads him; they 
know the errors of men’s thinking; and, from the 
wisdom which they have learned here on earth 
and in wider life, they would help men who live 
now to the thought which will bring understand¬ 
ing of the meaning and importance of man’s life 
and work in their relation to the whole life and 
work of personal self. They would teach men 
the value and dignity of personal selfhood; the 
value to life itself of those personal powers— 
mind, will, purpose, memory—which belong fd 
the man as personal life, which are the immortal 
powers of immortal life, commensurate with the 
needs of finite life on earth and forever. They 
would teach men the value of the earth work, 
which is part of the life’s work. They would 
teach men to do their work well whatever it may 
be, for that work when well done and well 
finished teaches wisdom and firmness in the use 
of the life’s personal powers, and thus aids the 
life in its purposed growth to fitness for wider 
life. They would teach men to give to their work 


48 


A Psychical Experience 

the thought which it needs; to think for their 
success in that work, and for their future on 
earth, and also to think, and will, and purpose for 
that worth of personal character which wins for 
the self wider life beyond earth. 

And a most important part of the teaching 
from the freed selves is faith; faith in the reality 
of God Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, 
and Infinite. 

Dr. Coulter was once asked “What is infinity?’' 
He replied, “The Fullness of Personality.” 
Think what the answer means—not finite, infinite 
in selfhood; not finite, omnipotent in will and 
purpose; not finite, omniscient in wisdom; not 
finite in presence, omnipresent. There are men’s 
philosophies of late which, because the world of 
man’s life is as it is, because man is not perfect, 
would make God but a finite God, a larger man; 
larger, to be sure, than any man who ever lived, 
still but a greater man. Where in this thought 
is there place for reverence, worship., prayer, 
faith? 

God chose to create an universe, a thought of 
His manifested in material reality; not a part of 
Himself, but by His will given material reality 
different from His reality; that universe to be the 
dwelling place and working place of finite selves; 
that universe to be an universe while He permits. 


Extracts from the Wordj with Comments 49 

Would that lessen His omnipotence? That which 
He created He can destroy. 

God chose to create and place in that universe 
finite personal selves endowed by Him with the 
powers of personal selfhood, and therefore free 
in their use of personal powers. He chose 
to purpose for those finite selves that they attain 
all the worth which finiteness may attain through 
their own use of their own personal powers; and 
to that end He teaches every self whom He cre¬ 
ated that wisdom in the use of his free personal 
powers which finally fulfills His purpose for that 
self. Does that lessen His omnipotence? Is not 
His permission that the finite self thus fulfill His 
purpose a self-limitation of His omnipotence? 

Man, worker on worlds by His purpose, fulfills His 
purpose by the way He ordains.^^ 

This is the faith which the freed selves would 
teach us,—faith in a personal God. And they 
would teach also faith in the wisdom and justice 
and love of His purpose for every life whom He 
made; faith in the love of Him who became man 
on earth that He might show to men the perfect 
life of man; faith in the efficacy of honest prayer 
for His help. 

It is a wonderful philosophy that they give us, 

“ Dr. Coulter. 


50 A Psychical Experience 

sensible, cheerful and inspiring; a philosophy 
which corrects the errors of men’s thinking; a 
philosophy of which every part is consistent with 
every other. It is not based on theory, but on 
truth known to its authors. It is not stated in 
metaphysical form, but, from its truths stated a 
true metaphysic for men may be formed. 

The philosophical X theories which men with 
much hard thinking devise, and with much techni¬ 
cal logomachy formulate, differ widely. They 
cannot then be all true. Let me give an instance 
of the errors that creep into these theories: 

An exponent of Idealism indulges himself in 
these words: “Thus we do not so much perceive 
our world as we think it.” 

“The phenomenal world is not an unreal 
world, but one which exists alone for thought, or 
the intellect. It is not a nonentity, else it could 
not be known, but it has being only in being 
known.” 

“The real world thus consists of ideas, and 
exists only for thought.” 

And idealists go so far as to account for the 
persistence of what is called phenomenal reality 
while it is not in any man^s thought, by claiming 
that its reality is maintained during that interval 
because it is in God’s thought. The daily life of 
all men, the idealist included, refutes this theory. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 51 

The idealist goes even further: he speaks of 
“the universality of our being in its relation to 
the whole’.’; and of “the universal will of the 
absolute.” He says that “each individual will 
becomes part of the universal whole, or absolute 
will,” and that “the absolute” is “the whole of 
all.” 

Thus he denies creation by God, and makes 
God include the universe with all that it contains. 
And thus he makes the physical, moral and ethi¬ 
cal evil of the world a part of God; the errors of 
man’s free will God’s errors; the wickedness of 
the world God’s wickedness. 

The theory of “the absolute” makes God and 
the universe co-existent from eternity, or, rather, 
the universe is God, and God is the universe, for, 
according to that theory, one cannot speak of God 
and the world since they are one, “the absolute.” 
It thus denies the personality of God, or else 
gives personality to the matter and force of which 
the material universe is constructed. 

The absolutist insists that his theory leads up 
to God, but his arguments lead only to a “whole” 
which he names God, because he would not be 
considered an atheist. But what is his God? 
“Absolute” will, and also imperfect will of man; 
“Absolute” purpose, and also man’s imperfect 
purpose; omniscient knowledge, and also the 


52 A Psychical Experience 

little knowledge of the most ignorant man; abso¬ 
lute knowledge of the future, and also man’s abso¬ 
lute lack of knowledge of the future. He is 
spirit, matter, force, electricity, ether; time and 
eternity; omnipresent, and also the fixed presence 
of a rock, and the fluttering presence of an insect. 

Of course the universe is a thought of God, 
but a thought made manifest by His will. Man, 
the life, is a thought of His, made by His will 
the finite image of His Infinite Personality. But 
the imperfections of the created, finite person¬ 
ality, are not God’s imperfections, as the “abso¬ 
lutist” makes them when he makes man a part of 
his “absolute,” and names his “absolute” God^ 

The vast universe, with all that it contains, and 
all that it is, is not a part of its Creator, but is a 
manifestation of the Omnipotent Will; not a 
part of, but outside of Himself; and it is by Him 
purposed to he an universe while His will per¬ 
mits. 

Believing this, we can speak of God and His 
universe. Then from our own personality we 
can partially understand His Infinite Personality, 
and we find a personal God to whom we can, with 
faith, address our worship, prayer and love. 

The world changes rapidly in these latter days, 
and men’s thought must keep pace with those 
changes. God changes not; Christ changes not. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 53 

His religion if rightly understood is adequate to 
the needs, not only of our day, but to the needs of 
all time. So the Christian must, by hard think¬ 
ing, adjust the changes in the world and the con¬ 
sequent changes in the thought of mankind to his 
religion, thus growing in understanding of Christ 
and what His teaching means for men; remem¬ 
bering always that the errors of men are the 
errors of free will which God gave men when He 
made them personal selves. And remembering 
that mankind learns wisdom through the mistakes 
of men. He must live himself under the rule of 
Christ’s teaching, holding fast his faith that God, 
who made man a living soul, knows how, through 
the very changes which bewilder men’s finite un¬ 
derstanding, to teach mankind finally the wisdom 
which He purposes that mankind shall find. And 
remembering that, though finite mankind may 
learn slowly, to God, eternal, the centuries of 
earth are but moments in His eternal purpose. 

These are the data, given by those in the wider 
life as facts, from which a true metaphysics for 
men may be formed: 

God, Infinite, Self-existent, Omnipotent, Om¬ 
niscient, Omnipresent, Creator of all that is beside 
himself. Ruler of all; life created by Him and 
willed to develop on all worlds suited by His will 
to life; man, the life, the highest created being. 


54 A Psychical Experience 

made personal self; made mortal of physical 
body, immortal of self; gifted by his Maker with 
immortal powers of selfhood; free in the use of 
his immortal powers, but purposed by his Maker 
to win wider life of self by his own use of those 
immortal powers; made finite personality, and 
therefore not perfect and liable to err; placed on 
earth for teaching; given by his Maker, through 
reincarnation in man’s body, all the opportunities 
that he needs to learn, through man’s experience, 
wisdom; work the portion of man, work life’s 
portion, for by work man and life learn the use 
of immortal powers; man’s life the first life of 
immortal self, man’s work the first work of im¬ 
mortal self; Christ, God manifest in man’s flesh. 
Exemplar of man’s perfect life that men may 
thus be helped; Christ, helper of men on all 
worlds which have man’s life, helper of life for¬ 
ever when the life prays honestly for His help; 
the wisdom and justice and love of God’s pur¬ 
pose, which destines every life made by Him to 
eternal growth and eternal happiness; every life 
finally, of free choice, fulfills His wise and lov¬ 
ing purpose; these are truths known to the freed 
selves, truths far-reaching, consistent, helpful. 
And they are told by the freed selves that they 
may help men to the wise thought which brings 
understanding of themselves, of the inherent 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 55 

greatness of their personal selfhood, of the value 
of their man’s work when well done and well 
finished; and which will help them to the firm, 
wise, personal purpose that achieves the worth of 
personal character which, by the Creator’s pur¬ 
pose, will permit wider personal life beyond man 
and earth. And these truths are told that they 
may help men to firm faith in God their Father, 
Helper, Friend. In these truths lies a sound 
philosophy for men. And in them there is not 
only a philosophy; there is a religion which can 
be accepted by any Christian, whatever be the 
form of worship which he prefers, for in them is 
the very essence of Christianity. 

Christianity is founded on the Fatherhood of 
God, and the Sonship of Jesus Christ; on the 
fact that the personality of Jesus was the only 
perfect personality who ever lived on earth as 
man; on the appeal of the personality of Jesus 
to the personality of any man who will think upon 
it, as an ideal which he can approach if he will; 
and, therefore, upon the meaning, to the man and 
to mankind, of Christ’s coming to earth. Men 
need that appeal to personal character to coun¬ 
teract the appeal of the mere earthly ambitions 
which are so strong in a man’s life. 

Faith in a personal God, the Father of not 
only Christ, but of all the lives whom He made 


56 A Psychical Experience 

personal selves, is the foundation, and faith in 
Christ, the Son of God, is the cornerstone and the 
keystone of the arch of the Church builded upon 
that foundation. 

The organization and practice of the man’s 
Church is human. The Dogma of the man’s 
Church is man’s teaching; Christ did not teach 
Dogma. The Dogma of the earlier centuries of 
the Church was intended to help men’s under¬ 
standing of Christ, and it was helpful when first 
promulgated. But when, with the passing of the 
centuries, human authority in the Church grew 
arrogant, promulgated Dogmas purposed to en¬ 
slave personality, and demanded unquestioning 
obedience to its doctrines and edicts, the inevi¬ 
table result was rebellion of personality. In that 
rebellion Martin Luther was the great leader, 
and the outcome was the Protestant Christian 
Church. May we not believe that God Himself 
was the inspiration to that rebuke to human 
arrogance? 

That rebellion did not mean casting aside all 
Church Dogma, but that human personality must 
be free to accept or reject a Dogma, and free to 
choose the form and ceremony which should sol¬ 
emnize and adorn the worship which he wishes to 
be acceptable to God. 

And so the Protestant Christian Church split 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 57 

up into sects, each accepting its chosen Dogmas, 
and each using its chosen form of worship, but all 
holding fast the fundamental faith in God eter¬ 
nal, Father of all whom He made men; and in 
Christ, His Son, who came to earth to teach man¬ 
kind the perfect life of man; which faith is also 
held fast in the Mother Church from which the 
Protestant Church seceded in protest against the 
assumption by the Mother Church of absolute 
authority over the minds and consciences of all 
men. 

No man can say that God will reject the honest 
worshiper of Him because the ritual of his wor¬ 
ship is plain or ornate. No man can say that God 
will reject the soul whose faith in Him and in 
His Son is sincere, because the man accepts or not 
this or that man-made Dogma. But it goes 
almost without saying that sincere faith in Him 
and in His Son is the foundation stone of every 
true Christian Church, the only faith absolutely 
essential to Christianity. 

The effort of to-day to bring about Church 
unity is a recognition of part of the Church of 
that fact. But men are perhaps more stubborn in 
their religious beliefs than in any other, and it 
may take centuries to bring about real Church 
unity. 

Christ came to earth, in the purpose of the 


58 A Psychical Experience 

Father for mankind, to be, for all succeeding ages 
of man’s life there, the exemplar of the perfect 
man’s life. Christ’s personality is to be the in¬ 
spiration and ideal for men’s personalities for all 
the centuries of mankind’s life on earth. 

Man’s understanding of the faith that is vital 
to his spiritual well-being is human and finite. But 
growth in understanding is a law of human prog¬ 
ress. So the religious belief that helps one period 
of mankind grows broader, clearer, and less ham¬ 
pered by non-essentials in succeeding periods. 

To believe in the Fatherhood of God and the 
Sonship of Jesus Christ is to believe in the wis¬ 
dom and love of God’s purpose for all mankind. 

In that belief there is no room for pessimism 
as to the future of mankind, for that belief im¬ 
plies faith that the seeming halts in the world’s 
progress are caused by the vagaries of human, 
finite wisdom; that the over-ruling Purpose of 
God will teach mankind, whom He made able to 
learn wisdom, through the mistakes of a genera¬ 
tion or more of men; that before earth loses its 
fitness as a temporary dwelling place for immor¬ 
tal selfhood, Christ’s kingdom will be established 
in all the earth; and all the immortal selves of 
men will be ready to take up their wider work 
for wider personal wisdom in the life beyond 
earth. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 59 

And so this word from the wisdom of the 
wider life to men, which inculcates that founda¬ 
tion faith without the Dogma which confuses 
men’s minds; which explains in clear and unmis¬ 
takable words how the wisdom and love of God’s 
purpose finally teaches every personal, immortal 
self that which he must learn on earth, by the very 
conditions and experiences of his life there; 
which explains the final accordance of man’s free 
will with the must of Omnipotent Purpose; which 
shows clearly what is the man’s part in the free¬ 
ing of his life from earth; which shows how God 
Himself helps man by the thought which, being 
made as he is, man cannot fail to find; which 
assures men of God’s help when with honest 
prayer they seek His help; which declares that 
Christ who came to earth to help men is the 
Helper of Life while life is; contains a Chris¬ 
tianity which any man can hold fast, whatever be 
his dogmatic belief, and whatever be his prefer¬ 
ence as to the form and ceremony of his worship. 
It is practical, everyday Christianity, which fact 
makes it of value to men. 

The word declares that the man’s work must 
be taken seriously, not carelessly, for it is a part 
of life’s work, and it is by personal struggle with 
the very conditions which the earth environment 
brings that the personal self earns fitness for 


6 o A Psychical Experience 

wider life. Then it follows that the idler, the 
mere dreamer, and the recluse fail to do the work 
which the life must do on earth to fulfill their 
Maker’s purpose. It is by both thought and 
work, reflection and action, that the free self 
achieves his destiny. 

We are conscious of selfhood, of individuality, 
and we hope that we will go to heaven; but we 
seldom pause to think that here on earth we are 
just beginning our immortal life of selfhood. We 
are conscious that our mind, will, purpose, mem¬ 
ory are our own; but we seldom think that these 
powers are the powers of life itself; that they 
will go with us to the life beyond earth, and be 
our life’s powers through immortality. We are 
conscious that wise use of those powers is well 
for us, and brings us breadth and strength, and 
wisdom and success on earth. We know that 
high personal character is won by wise use of 
those powers, but we seldom think that wise use 
of those powers by us men, wise use of those 
powers whose limit no man has ever found, is but 
preparation for wider personal use of those very 
personal powers in the wider work that the self 
must do in the wider life beyond earth. We rec¬ 
ognize that those powers, like the physical body, 
gain strength by work. But we seldom think that 
when, by our own work of those powers we have 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 6i 

won the wider personal life, we must still keep 
them working. We think of those powers as 
man’s powers, peculiarly well fitted for the 
work he has to do. But we seldom think beyond 
that. 

Why should man have such wonderful powers 
if he, the self. Is to lose them when he goes to 
life beyond earth? Why should he, the self, 
learn to work well on earth If he has no work to 
do In the life beyond earth? Why should he 
learn wisdom on earth if he Is to forget it when 
he needs wisdom In a life whose home and work¬ 
ing place Is the wide universe? 

Mind, will, purpose, memory, are the working 
tools of personal selfhood, each self’s powers his 
own. There could be no personal life beyond 
earth of the self of man unless he takes with him 
to that life his own personal powers. There 
could be no personal Immortality unless those 
powers are also Immortal. Without those powers 
selfhood would be mere existence. Would a good 
God give to self on earth such powers and con¬ 
demn him to mere existence beyond earth, or to 
absorption In a “whole of life,” and therefore to 
extinction of his personality? A thousand times 
No. 

This thought follows Inevitably then,—the self 
while he lives on earth must learn wise and firm 


62 A Psychical Experience 

use of those powers, or he is not ready for his 
wider work and wider life. 

But, you may say, the fact is that he does not 
always learn that which you say he must learn. 
Very likely, you and I are not ready. Yet we 
may die tomorrow. And I think we know many 
others who are not ready. What are you telling 
us? Are you just emphasizing the old theory of 
heaven for the good and hell for the wicked? 
The self, you say, is immortal, and to be ready 
for wider life must become ready on earth. 
What becomes of those who are not ready when 
they finish the earth life? 

Here the word from the wider life helps us 
and gives us the explanation which we need. 

When the Wilier of All made the life of man a 
personal self. He gave to the life the individual 
powers of selfhood. When He chose to make 
the life a self. He chose to limit His own omnipo¬ 
tence, for He made each self free to use his 
powers as he chooses. He gave to each life 
powers which, though they are finite since the 
created self is necessarily finite, are like in kind 
to His own infinite powers. The free, finite self, 
whose wisdom is not omniscient, is liable to 
choose unwise, or weak, or wicked use of his will 
and purpose. Then he has not made those 
powers ready for wider use in wider life, and 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 63 

consequently he, the self, is not ready for wider 
life. But that does not necessarily wreck his life 
forever. God who gave him those powers gave 
him also reasoning mind, and memory. Thus He 
made the self able to learn wisdom from the 
remembered consequences of his weak or wicked 
use of will and purpose. He does not always 
learn in a whole man’s lifetime, and often his 
physical life is cut short before he really begins 
to learn. Does that necessarily wreck his whole 
life? Must he then go to hell for eternal pun¬ 
ishment? No. 

In His wisdom God limited the years of the 
physical life of man’s body. One man’s lifetime 
is but a longer or shorter breath in immortal life. 
The personal self is made free to use his powers 
well or ill as he chooses. He lives in mutual rela¬ 
tions with other men, and the social, mental, and 
moral environment of men’s lives differs widely. 
He is made able to learn, but one man may not 
have the same opportunity as another. Would a 
just God punish him eternally then because he 
does not learn? 

But he may have every opportunity, the best 
social and mental and moral environment, yet wil¬ 
fully refuse to learn. Would a loving God punish 
him eternally for his wilfulness in this one breath 
of immortal life? 


64 A Psychical Experience 

What life is only He who willed it knows. 
When God willed that the life of man should be 
a personal self, He made that life the crown of 
His creation. He made that life a developing 
being. Evolution is his law for the development 
of life. Man, developed to conscious selfhood, 
stands far above other developed life on earth. 
Still man is but a finite self, and finite wisdom 
errs. 

We must believe that the Creator knew what 
He was doing when He made the life of man a 
free, finite, self, and therefore not perfect. Think 
what life on earth would be without its struggle. 
We would be all alike, and would die of weari¬ 
ness, for we would have nothing to work for, 
nothing to hope for, no interest whatever in the 
present or the future. 

But the wisdom of the Creator did not doom us 
to that weariness. He made each life a personal 
self; He made each self immortal; He gave to 
each self powers that will be his own through all 
his life of immortality. Immortality to come 
does not mean life from eternity in the past. 
Immortality is a gift of the Creator to the lives 
whom He made. It is not an afterthought of 
His, but a carrying out of His original purpose 
when He created life of self. 

He placed those selves on worlds, there to 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 65 

begin the personal struggle through which the self 
fulfills His purpose. He made worlds suited to 
be the primary school of immortal lives. His 
children err, as children will. But He does not 
therefore disown the erring ones. His love is 
for every child of His. He made every life able 
to learn in the earth school, and His purpose is 
that every life shall finally learn the wisdom, and 
firmness, and strength which fit him for the wider 
personal life beyond earth; and His purpose, 
being Omnipotent Purpose, must be fulfilled. 

Then, since He gave the self free will and free 
purpose. His purpose for the self must be ful¬ 
filled by the self’s own free will and purpose. 

Think a moment. The self is made for work, 
for struggle. Work is effort, work is action. 
He is placed on a world where all the conditions, 
physical, economic, social, mental, and moral in¬ 
vite him to effort. Whatever he achieves of per¬ 
sonal wisdom, firmness and strength, he achieves 
by his personal work for it. His worth of life, 
his worth of personal character, is an achieve¬ 
ment of his free will and of his free choice. It 
must be so, for no one can force him to be 
worthy. He has not only will and purpose to aid 
him, but also reasoning mind and memory. Wis¬ 
dom won by free choice begets further wisdom. 
Strength kept firm by his free choice begets fur- 


66 A Psychical Experience 

ther strength. Weakness freely chosen Is apt to 
beget further weakness. We all know that this 
is so. Man then chooses for himself whether his 
life be fitted for wider work and life, or unfitted. 

Yet the Omnipotent Purpose wills that finally 
every life be fitted for wider life, but does not 
force the free will of any one. How can this be 
true? 

The word from the wider life gives us the 
reply; and the reply accords with what we must 
think of the God whom we worship, that He is 
wise, and just, and loving in His dealing with 
every life whom He made free. He does not 
forget one life. He watches every life. He 
knows the creatures whom He made. Life of 
the self in man is an opportunity to learn, and he 
is so gifted that he can learn if he so chooses. 

If he chooses not to learn, if his earth environ¬ 
ment and associations be unfavorable to his learn¬ 
ing, or if his man’s lifetime be cut off by some of 
the vicissitudes of earth, he needs further oppor¬ 
tunity. Then the justice and love of his Maker, 
who knows his need, gives him further opportu¬ 
nity by reincarnation in man’s flesh. Earth is 
the school where the self must learn that which 
fits him for wider personal life beyond worlds, 
God Himself is the teacher, who knows how to 
deal with His pupil. He teaches kindly if the 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 67 

self will learn through kindness, but He teaches 
by penalty if penalty is needed. One man’s life¬ 
time is but a breath in immortality, and finally, 
given the opportunity and the teaching that he 
needs, every life chooses to fulfill God’s purpose 
for him by his own free will. God, wise, and 
just, and loving, does not purpose for one life 
eternal happijiess, and for another eternal misery, 
but for every life finally the joy of personal 
worth, wisdom, firmness and strength achieved 
by himself. 

The man’s work, then, is the first work of the 
immortal self. The earth conditions make all 
kinds of work necessary. Whatever it be, that 
work is dignified by the thought that it is part of 
the immortal self’s work. Whatever it be, if it 
be done well, firmly, honestly, and finished well, 
the life itself grows through that work. The 
street sweeper may be growing more surely, and 
using more worthily in the sight of God the oppor¬ 
tunity that is his opportunity, than the merchant 
prince. It is the quality of a man’s work that is 
of ultimate benefit to his life. 

It will not do to think of any work as un¬ 
worthy of a man, provided he does it well, firmly 
and with his best. It is work so done that brings- 
to him growth in personal character. 

Man is the being who consciously works for 


68 A Psychical Experience 

his future not through instinct, but through 
intelligent foresight and purpose; God made 
him so. 

Man is the thinking being, whose reasoned 
thought helps him in his work for the present and 
for the future. Through his thinking centuries 
on earth he has found the thoughts which not 
only help him personally, but which help him in 
his social relations; the thoughts which help man¬ 
kind. He has found the thought of a Higher 
Being, Supreme Ruler of All; he has found the 
thought of worship and prayer; the thought of 
duty to his God and to his fellow-man; in other 
words, the consciousness of an ought; he has 
found the thought of right and wrong; the 
thought of good and evil; the thought of worth 
of personal character; the thought of social jus¬ 
tice. These thoughts man has found, and, 
through his noted and remembered experiences, 
and his intelligent reasoning, he has broadened 
their meaning as the centuries pass. 

We must believe that his Maker willed him to 
find those thoughts, for man is so made, and 
placed in such relation to his God and to his fel¬ 
low men, that he could not fail to find them. 
Thus God Himself has helped man through the 
centuries, for those thoughts, more far-reaching 
than any others in their good effect upon his life. 


Extracts from the Wordy with Comments 69 

have helped him to understand himself, and to 
know that he is something greater than a mere 
grubber ..for earthly goods. 

And when, in the life of mankind on earth, the 
time was ripe for clearing his thought of doubts, 
uncertainties, and errors, Christ, God incarnated 
in man’s flesh, came to earth that He might show 
to man the perfect man’s life, that He might be 
an example for men to follow while earth con¬ 
tinues to be man’s dwelling place. 

Were God to force man’s will He would stul¬ 
tify His own creation. He teaches the life. He 
so made the self that he can learn, if he so wills, 
that which his Maker purposes that he shall 
learn. And God so adapts the renewed opportu¬ 
nities which reincarnation brings, and so adapts 
His teaching to the special needs of each life, 
that finally the intelligent reasoning self chooses 
of his own free will to do that, and be that which 
prepares him to enter upon the wider life which 
his Maker purposes for him; the wider personal 
life in which, freed from the limitations of man’s 
physical body and man’s little world, and with 
the vast universe his working place, he, the self, 
will grow in wisdom and strength and greatness 
through the ages of his immortal selfhood. 

Why should men think reincarnation a fallacy? 
They do not remember their former lives, but 


70 A Psychical Experience 

that does not prove that they did not have them. 
If the self be a life which endures after physical 
body dies; if the self in this man has not chosen 
to do that and be that which fits him for wider 
life and wider work than that of man; if he has 
not profited by the earth experience, which we 
will all allow is admirably suited to teach him# 
if he has finished a man’s life without gaining 
anything from it; what life would be best suited 
to him for his next opportunity? If he has not 
learned to work well on earth, would he learn 
better where the work is wider, and therefore 
harder? If he has not learned to think well for 
his earth problems, would he be fit for the wider 
problems of a world beyond earth? Would a 
wise parent of a child who has just begun to learn 
in a primary school put him for the next term 
into the high school? Is God less wise than an 
earthly parent? Why did He suit earth, and the 
earth experiences which the self inevitably finds 
there, so admirably to the man’s life? Why did 
He make the self able to learn through those 
experiences if the self thus wishes? Can we think 
that He did this in order that one self shall learn 
and be rewarded by wider life, and another fail 
utterly? Are we not almost compelled to think 
that He gives the backward child another term 
in the same school? 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 71 

The enduring self of man, an immortal life, 
passes many a man’s lifetime incarnated in man’s 
flesh. His experiences are many. He learns 
something in each lifetime that makes a lasting 
impression upon him. Perhaps he has in one 
incarnation endeavored to live well and worthily 
according to his lights. The impression upon his 
life of that endeavor persists, and, in the next 
incarnation influences his life to further wisdom 
and strength. Perhaps he has lived wickedly; 
some of his wickedness has brought a penalty, 
God knows how to penalize so that it will leave a 
persistent impression. In the next incarnation 
he does not commit that wickedness; he does not 
forget that that wickedness is not wise. And so, 
helped in each incarnation by a bit of wisdom 
found in the last, he finally learns that all wicked¬ 
ness is unwise. He receives each time the teach¬ 
ing which he needs, and God is a patient teacher. 
Probably he retains evil impressions as well as 
good, but good impressions are a leaven which 
finally leavens the whole lump. 

Perhaps he lives carelessly and irresponsibly, 
with the sort of happiness which such a life 
brings. Sooner or later he receives a shock which 
wakes him to the worthlessness of such a life; 
and that impression endures. Remember that 
the life is immortal, and that mind is the life’s 


72 A Psychical Experience 

mind. The man does not remember his former 
lives, and that in most cases is merciful. But his 
mind, which is the same mind that was his in his 
former man’s lives, has received deep impressions 
from his former experiences which, though “be¬ 
low the threshold of consciousness” of the man, 
do strongly influence his thought, and therefore 
his will, his purpose, and his actions. “As a man 
thinketh, so is he.” 

Thus the enduring personal self, endowed with 
enduring personal powers, given the opportunities 
and the teaching which, in the wisdom of his 
Maker, he needs, grows in wisdom and firmness 
and strength till finally, not as the puppet of his 
Maker, but in the dignity of immortal selfhood, 
he chooses of his own free will to fulfill the 
Higher purpose of his Maker, and by his own 
achievement wins the worth of life which frees 
him forever from worlds, and from the physical 
limitations which hampered him while he was 
man. And in that wider life with its wider and 
wider vision he grows in wisdom and strength 
and worth of personal character through the eons 
of immortality. He can never be perfect, for he 
is finite, and only the Creator is perfect. Per¬ 
fection is infinite. So there is always something 
beyond for which to strive through all his im¬ 
mortal life. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 73 

I have above worded in my own way some of 
the thought in the word, and suggested by the 
word, which it was my privilege to write at the 
dictation of personalities now in the wider life, 
who wish by that thought to help men to under¬ 
stand the greatness and dignity of the selfhood 
which God gives to life, and the personal respon¬ 
sibility which that free selfhood brings. 

It is evident that the man who wishes for his 
self wider personal life must himself work for it. 
He cannot lie down and expect God to waft him 
to wider life without effort of his own. He must 
be positive, not negative. He must use well the 
opportunities which this lifetime on earth gives 
him. He must use his mind, his memory, his will, 
his purpose; they were given him for use. He 
must use well his time, not waste it. He has his 
man’s work to do; it is part of his life’s work. 
He must do it with his best. He has his man’s 
worth of character to win. He must think what 
for him in his man’s surroundings, worth of char¬ 
acter would be. His man’s worth is his life’s 
worth. 

There is nothing impractical, nothing vision¬ 
ary in this doctrine which is given us from the 
wider life; it does not tell us that a man who 
believes he is an immortal self should pass his 
man’s years in idle dreaming, even of immortal- 


74 A Psychical Experience 

ity. There is nothing that says he should shut 
himself off from his fellow-men and think only 
of his future wider life. It is a doctrine for the 
man who must live the man’s life in the man’s 
environment. It assures him of a wider personal 
life to come, but tells him that he must earn that 
life by his own man’s work, and his man’s per¬ 
sonal worth of character. It dignifies man’s 
work as part of immortal self’s work. It digni¬ 
fies man’s selfhood as the selfhood of the crown 
of God’s creation, a finite selfhood able to carry 
out the Omnipotent purpose for him by his own 
personal powers, and of his own free choice. 

It tells him that while he is man he has to 
work as men do, and do his man’s work well if 
he does not wish to have man’s work to do again. 
To do it well requires wise thought and firm will 
and purpose. Work thus done brings to him 
personal growth. 

Development of personality by personal use of 
personal powers is God’s law for finite life. 
Finite personalities live in mutual relations with 
other finite personalities, and the actual facts of 
the earth environment with all its problems, per¬ 
sonal, social, economic, mental, and moral, are 
suited to bring about that degree of personal 
development which God purposes for the earth 
stage of immortal selfhood. And that degree of 


Extracts from the Wordy with Comments 75 

development makes the self ready for his first 
wider life. But God’s purpose does not force the 
self to_ achieve that degree of development this 
time of life on earth. He is a free self. His 
selfhood throws the responsibility for his develop¬ 
ment upon his free will. 

Wiiich would a man who thinks consider the 
wise plan, then?—To choose that weak, or 
wicked, or unworthy use of his free powers which 
will assuredly but fit him for another man’s life, 
and perhaps a life of penalty; or to choose that 
use of those free powers which will bring him 
continued growth, and thus assuredly bring him 
continually nearer to fitness for wider life and 
wider work? 

God teaches, yes. And His teaching is that 
the man whom He made personal self, to whom 
He willed all that personal selfhood means, must 
do his part in the freeing of his life from earth. 
The earth experience of life is an education, and, 
in the purpose of the Wilier of Life, the chief 
aim of that education is self-realization. And 
the man must understand that the final purpose 
of his self-realization on earth must be that he 
become ready to leave this world behind him for¬ 
ever. This purpose does not conflict with his 
purpose for his man’s well-being, but it makes 
him think what are the real values in a man’s 



76 A Psychical Experience 

well-being. It makes him think how to make his 
purpose for the man’s well-being serve his higher 
purpose. Does this mean that he must be always 
thinking of the wider life? No. A man’s work, 
to be well done, needs concentrated thought for 
that very work, and, unless the man works well, 
the life is not working well. He purposes and 
works for an earth reward, which is entirely in 
accordance with the earth conditions of the life. 
But that does not prevent his understanding, and 
keeping in the back of his mind, that the higher 
purpose of his work is that self-realization which 
brings to him the reward of wider personal life 
after his earth work is finished. 

What would that self-realization be? It would^ 
be making the powers of selfhood real factors in 
his life; utilizing those powers in the personal 
work which he undertakes; utilizing the thoughts 
which God wills that man shall find, by applying 
them to his own life; and, beside this, utilizing 
his mind in the study of the fine thoughts of other 
men, and in finding high thoughts of his own; 
utilizing his will and his purpose in the direction 
which his best thinking tells him is wise; utilizing 
his memory of his former doings and their con¬ 
sequences; finding through his work and his 
thought the real meaning of his life as a man, in 
its relation to his whole life; realizing the value 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 77 

of time, and of the opportunity which is now his; 
realizing the value to him of firmness that is not 
fitful, but enduring. 

By this self-realization, which the Wilier of 
his life makes his own choice, and makes him able 
to achieve, he does his part in the freeing of his 
life from earth. 

Each man’s problem is his own. His person¬ 
ality makes it so. He has to deal with the world 
facts which form his particular environment. 
His powers are his own, and no one but he can 
use his powers. He uses them as he pleases, for 
he is a free agent. He is helped to wise use by 
the thought or the advice of others if he thus 
chooses. He thinks, and wills, and purposes for 
his man’s future, which is in accordance with his 
man’s nature. He can think also for his personal 
wider future if he thus wishes. 

How would he think well for that? Not by 
keeping his head in the clouds, and despising the 
world he lives in; that would not develop his 
selfhood, that would narrow him; but by think¬ 
ing how to live the actual man’s life with other 
men rightly and well, wisely and firmly; by 
thinking for the development in himself of all 
that makes for a right personal character. His 
firm will and purpose are his life’s firm will and 
purpose; his worth of character is his life’s 


V 


78 A Psychical Experience 

worth. As the man is the life is, for man is the 
life. And the life who lives man’s years well 
takes with him to the wider world the firm will 
and purpose, the wise, high, broad thought, the 
worth of personal character, which he has won 
on earth, not by dreaming but by his own work 
for them. 

The earth work is not a hindrance to life, it 
is help. Listen to the advice which the friends in 
the wider life give to me, a business man: “You 
are a business man, you like that work; that 
work is good for you. Keep your will and pur¬ 
pose for that work firm; your life gains firmness 
of will and purpose thereby. Think hard for 
that work; your life’s mind gains strength by 
that hard thinking. Make part of your motive 
in your business work help for others. Keep that 
motive firm, for help willed for others brings to 
the wilier help from his Maker. 

You ask whether we can help you in your busi¬ 
ness work. No, we cannot help you; we have 
left that work behind us. Nor would we help 
you if we could, for it would be at the cost of the 
loss of your own initiative. Do your business 
work with the powers which God gave you for 
that purpose. 

But think also for other things than business. 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 79 

Find by honest thinking what you lack of worth 
in your personal character. Think wherein you 
fail to do and be your best. Then with firm will 
and purpose work to find those things which your 
honest thinking tells you you lack. Use your will 
and purpose. Use your life’s mind. Make firm 
will and purpose a habit. Make hard thinking a 
habit. Work your mind, not only for your busi¬ 
ness, but also for the broad, high thinking that 
helps life itself. 

Play, yes. If you are a normal human being 
you need play. But so regulate your play, and 
the time you devote to it, that play shall be a re¬ 
creation of your ability to work. You are a man, 
you must work as men do. You work for your 
man’s future; that^ is right. But remember, 
while you work for that, that man’s future is but 
a step in your life’s future. Make that step a 
wise one. Live in the present for the future. 

Read books that are worth while, books that 
make you think. Seek work outside of your busi¬ 
ness that is worth while. Put from you little 
thoughts; seek high thought, broad thought, big 
thought. Think what your work is for, think 
what you win if you work all your man’s work 
firmly and well. Then all your work will be 
happy work. \ 


8 o A Psychical Experience 

Pray honestly for God’s help, working honestly 
to do and be that which you ask His help to do 
and be. 

And when, by your man’s work, you, the self, 
have won your wider life, you will thank God 
with all your heart that He gave you that work 
to do, made you able, and helped you to do it 
well.” 

This is, of course, a brief of the wider life’s 
advice to me, a business man. Is it not sound, 
practical, wholesome, helpful advice? Would it 
not be just as sound, practical and helpful to any 
man, whatever his work may be? 

That is just what all the word from the other 
life is meant to be—sound, practical help for 
men; men who, although they are immortal per¬ 
sonal selves, must live on this world as it is until 
they fit themselves, of their own free will, for 
wider personal life than this world can give them. 

I have epitomized in my own language, repeat¬ 
ing a thought when I deemed it necessary for 
clearness, a word which is not my word. The 
books from which I have quoted are not my 
thought. No man could have written these books 
as his word without previous careful thinking, 
and without careful choosing of his words to 
express his thought. The books were written 
from telepathic word by word dictation, and the 


Extracts from the Wordy with Comments 8l 

doctrine unfolded as the work proceeded. There 
was no human being who could do this tel- 
epathing, since I wrote now in Chicago, now in 
Florida, now on the ocean, now in England, now 
in France. The dictation, then, must have been 
from minds not of human beings. Impossible, 
you say. Not necessarily impossible, not even 
necessarily improbable that those! personalities 
who named themselves, wishing to do a good 
work for men, should select their scribe, carefully 
educate him in telepathic hearing, and then dictate 
the word which they wish to help men’s thinking. 
It is not nearly so improbable as that a man could 
write a valuable book without any thinking. 

An unbeliever in communication between this 
world and the world beyond might say of this 
word which I received— “It is well enough as a 
piece of worldly wisdom, but wise men have said 
much the same thing. Would a word so obvious 
come from the other world?” 

Why not? It is a word to men. It is intended 
to help men who are personal selves, to under¬ 
stand their selfhood; to understand their responsi¬ 
bility as men to the Wilier of Life; to understand 
that wise work, wise thought, and wise life of 
men, in the environment, and under the conditions 
which belong to earth life, win for the personal 
self his wider life beyond earth; to understand the 


82 


A Psychical Experience 

true relation of the short life of man, and the 
man’s work, to the wider life and work of the self 
beyond earth. Is not all this an understanding 
that men need? And the word is told with the 
authority of those who know. 

And is it all so “obvious”? What man could 
assert, of his own knowledge, that the physical 
body is left on earth, and the personal self in 
wider life has a body suited to that life? What 
man could assert of his personal knowledge that 
he understands the why of reincarnation on earth 
because he remembers well his many man’s lives? 
What man could assert of his own knowledge that 
the spiritual powers of selfhood go with the self 
to wider life? What man could assert, of his 
own knowledge, that many worlds in the vast uni¬ 
verse hold lives of men? What man could as¬ 
sert that he knows Christ as one personality 
knows another; that Christ is the Helper of finite 
life on all worlds that have finite life? What 
man could assert that he knew Christ, the man, 
when He lived as man on earth? What man 
could assert that God teaches every personal self 
of man the wisdom in earth life that admits him 
to wider personal life beyond earth? Yet all 
these assertions are made in this word from the 
wider life, and those who thus assert say “We 
have told the truth, we know it.” 


Extracts from the Word, with Comments 83 

Is all this so very “obvious” to men? 

In all my statement of my experience I have 
told the strict truth. It is a wonderful experience 
for a man. And I thank God for the word which 
He has permitted me to hear and write; for the 
happiness of talking with my wife, and for the 
privilege, which they have granted me, of calling 
those who have made me their fellow-worker for 
help, my friends. 

Reverently always the work was done, and rev¬ 
erently I join in the prayer with which Dr. Coulter 
closes the first book: 

“Help our work for help, O God, with Thy 
blessing.” 


1 


J, , 



I 


I 




• , ^ 


I 




vt 



I WILL 





Ill 


/ WILL 

T WO little words easily spoken. Two little 
words that we speak every day of our lives 
without any particular thought that they have a 
deep significance. Yet those two little words ex¬ 
press in language the very essence of personality. 

/ will, /, the ego, the self conscious of selfhood; 
conscious that my will is my own, and free; con¬ 
scious that no one can do my willing but I; con¬ 
scious that, though I may be forced to do that 
which I do not wish, that forced action is contrary 
to my real will. 

Descartes’ well-known phrase, ^^cogito, ergo 
sum!\ “I think, therefore I am”, is an enticing 
phrase, but, ^^volo, ergo sum”^ “I will, therefore 
I am”, would better express the value of selfhood. 
A clam is, and perhaps it thinks. Mere thinking 
confers little value. But when my WiW^ puts 
into effect my thinking, then I become a value in 
the world. 

The Universe is the thought of its Creator 
made manifest by His Supreme Will. Man’s 

87 


V 


» 5 



88 A Psychical Experience 

Self is a thought of God, made personal, indi¬ 
vidual life by His Supreme Will; given by His 
Will the powers of selfhood which make man 
the Crown of His Creation; given reflective pow¬ 
ers in mind and memory which make him able to 
learn wisdom from thought and experience; given 
a planning power in purpose which makes him 
able to visualize his future; given executive power 
in Will, the power which acts^ without which the 
other powers would have but negative value. By 
his WilV\ the power which acts^ Man, the 
personal self, becomes a positive value in the 
Universe. 

Since man is made by his Creator a personal 
life, man’s ^^1 JVilV^ is a free will. The very fact 
of his personality implies the possession of per¬ 
sonal powers which are his own. If man’s will 
were bound it would not be his own will. He is 
not always able to accomplish all that he wills, 
for he lives in reciprocal relations with other per¬ 
sonal selves who have wills of their own. But in 
the conflict with other wills, and with the circum¬ 
stances which form his personal environment, he 
learns wisdom in the use of his own will. His 
mind conceives an ideal which he wishes to real¬ 
ize; his purpose plans ways and means, and his 

JViW^ executes his plans as far as he is able. 

His finite Will is limited, and its owner must 


I Will 


89 


realize that it has its limits, but it is a wonderfully 
adaptive power. The wise T WiW* does not at¬ 
tempt to push down a strong opposing wall with 
one’s head, but finds other ways to conquer it. 

The wise ^7 WiW^ is a firm ^7 WiW\ It does 
not easily admit defeat. It is persistent, resource¬ 
ful, energetic, courageous. 

The wise '7 WilV* must, of course, have the 
help of the other personal powers. Memory must 
help, for memory of personal experience is a great 
teacher. Mind must help, for hard thinking is a 
begetter of wisdom! Purpose must help, for sus¬ 
tained and definite purpose is a constant spur to 
effort. And the firm '7 WilV^ works in co-ordi¬ 
nation with life’s other powers, and keeps them up 
to their work. ^ 

^7 Wiir\ aided by wise and thoughtful inter¬ 
pretation of the past and present, spurred by firm 
high purpose for the future, is the executive 
factor in personal accomplishment. 

The ends which men have in view are as dif¬ 
ferent as are their personalities, else the work 
of the world would not be done. And each man 
works for that end which he has chosen to have 
in view by his own ^7 Wiir\ His choice is influ¬ 
enced partly by heredity, largely by environment, 
and very largely by his education. The end for 
which he works may, then, since his Will is free. 


90 A Psychical Experience 

be good or evil, high or trivial, far-sighted or 
short-sighted, as he himself chooses. He may be 
hindered or prevented from accomplishing his 
end in view by intervention which he cannot con¬ 
trol, (as, for example, by the law, if his purpose 
be evil,) while his will remains the same. 

Since his choice is his own and free, he can 
choose to make his end in view the victory over 
such influences of heredity, environment, and lack 
of right education as are evil. 

To be born of evil parents, to live in the slums, 
to be in daily contact with those whose purposes 
are the opposite of good, is a tremendous handi¬ 
cap. We, who have not lived under that handi¬ 
cap can never understand how great it is. But 
men do overcome even that handicap. When they 
do, it is because they themselves will to do so. 
They may be helped by others to overcome that 
handicap, but they cannot be helped unless they 
themselves will to be helped. 

A man’s personality is his own; no one else is 
just the man he is. A man’s powers are his own; 
no one else has just the same powers. A man’s 
spiritual powers, like his physical body, are de¬ 
veloped by work. He chooses what his develop¬ 
ment shall be when he chooses his end in view. 
He is so made that, by use of his reasoning pow¬ 
ers, he can learn through experience and choose 


/ Will 


91 

wisely. His own Will” is the executive power 
in his self-development. 

Omnipotence said ^7 Will” and the Universe 
was made. But it was not made a finished Uni¬ 
verse. The same ^7 Will” ordained laws of mo¬ 
tion and force through the operation of which the 
Universe continually develops. Omnipotence said 
^7 Will” and Man was made a living self. But 
he was not made a finished personality. He was 
purposed to develop his personality by his own 
use of the free powers with which Omnipotence 
endowed him. Omnipotence said '7 Will” and 
the life of man was made an immortal personal 
self; endowed with powers adequate for his use 
through all his life of immortality; and, there¬ 
fore, purposed to achieve wider and wider worth 
through all his life of immortality by his own use 
of his own powers. 

The Omnipotent ^7 Will” who created the Uni¬ 
verse did not then cease to work, but continues 
immanent in that Universe, ruling it in every part, 
while He wills it to be a Universe. 

The ^7 Will” which He made life’s executive 
power does not cease its usefulness with man’s 
life on earth, which is the childhood of immortal 
life, but continues to be the finite self’s executive 
power through the eons of personal immortality. 
And by that finite ^7 Will” of finite personal self, 


92 A Psychical Experience 

the Omnipotent WilV^ of Omnipotent Purpose, 
that the finite self shall grow through his im¬ 
mortal life, is to be fulfilled. 

Is it not wonderful, this selfhood of man? Is 
it not a wonderful power, this ^^1 WtW* of man? 
And this wonderful WilV^ is the personal 
power of every one of us. It is worth our while 
to think and think hard. 

We who are still men are passing the childhood 
of immortal life in the earth school. In the earth 
school we must make ready for the Youth of im¬ 
mortal life in the world beyond earth. And the 
fact that we are made able to prepare ourselves 
for wider life by the wise use of our own free 
WilV' throws the responsibility upon each one 
of us. Each of us is personally responsible to his 
Maker for the use which he makes of his free 

'7 Wilir 

While we are Men we work under Earth con¬ 
ditions. Under no circumstances can we escape 
or evade entirely our personal, social, and eco¬ 
nomic relations with other men. Yet each man 
remains an individual self whose ^7 WiW* is his 
own. 

Progress in the world, personal, social, or eco¬ 
nomic, is the result of man’s will; personal prog¬ 
ress, or growth in character, is the result of per¬ 
sonal will; social progress, of personal wills used 


/ Will 


93 


collectively for a common purpose; economic 
progress, of both personal and collective will. 
The motive force In man’s world, man’s work, 
and man’s life is man’s will. 

Growth is the law for life. It Is the growth of 
life that has made this world what it is. To 
man’s life alone, so far as we may know. Is given 
permission to choose whether he shall grow or 
retrograde. He grows In strength and ability, or 
falters Into weakness, according as his own 
WilV^ is firm or flabby. He finds fine, high, 
helpful thought, or fades Into triviality of think¬ 
ing, according as his own WiW* Is firm to work 
his wonderful mind, or not. He thinks for his 
far future, thinks for the worth of man’s life 
which will make him, the self, ready for wider 
life, or thinks only for the day, as he himself 
chooses. 

He keeps himself good, pure, true, honest, or 
he degenerates Into dishonesty, vileness, criminal¬ 
ity, as he himself wills. In brief, he makes his 
personal character what It Is, by his own Will!* 

For what purpose Is he given this freedom of 
Will by his Maker? For what purpose is he 
given personality? For what purpose is he given 
his wonderful mind and reasoning power, his won¬ 
derful memory? Can we think for a moment that 
a good God purposes that he shall ruin himself by 


94 A Psychical Experience 

his free JVilV* ? Can we think for a moment, 
then, that a good God created the wonderful self 
of man to endure but for the few brief years of 
man’s life? If personal life ends with Earth, of 
what ultimate value are the thoughts of God, 
Worship, Prayer, Ethics, Morality, Justice, Duty, 
Worth of Life, Good, Truth, Honesty? The 
very fact that these thoughts have influenced men, 
and have endured in men’s minds since history 
began, and have grown through the centuries to 
wider meaning, is almost irrefutable proof that 
man’s life of self is purposed by his Maker to 
continue beyond Earth. And if the life continues 
beyond Earth where would it end? Would there 
ever be a time when those thoughts would not be 
useful to a personal life? Is not immortality of 
selfhood a reasonable faith then? 

The powers of Man, then, are the immortal 
powers of immortal personal self. Man is that 
immortal self living and working on Earth. 
Then Man’s WilV^ is immortal life’s 'T WHIP 
Think what this means. Man’s 'T WilV^ wins his 
worth of personal character. That worth is his 
life’s worth, and that worth wins for him, the 
self, the first wider life beyond earth. When he, 
the self, enters that first higher life, he takes with 
him the same powers which he used on earth, else 
he would not be the same self. He uses the same 


I Will 


95 


powers in the wider life’s work, and by their use 
he wins personal growth through eternity. My 
'7 Wiir is my executive power for all my im¬ 
mortal life. So it is willed to be by the Wilier of 
Life. 

And by my ^7 WiW\ finite though I am, and 
liable to weakness or error in its use until I learn 
wisdom, I finally fulfill the Omnipotent Purpose 
for me of my Creator. 

To use my ^7 WiW^ wisely and well, while I 
am a Man, is my part in making my personal self 
ready for wider work and greater worth in the 
first wider life beyond this earth, and fulfilling 
thus far my Maker’s purpose for me. 

I cannot do my part by lying down and waiting 
for something to turn up. I must turn something 
up myself. I cannot do it by secluding myself 
from my fellowmen, and just dreaming; all my 
powers but imagination would rust. I cannot 
hire someone else to do it for me; I must do it 
myself. I cannot do it by foolishly, or weakly, or 
wickedly, using my ^7 WilV *; the thoughts which 
have endured in men’s minds through the cen¬ 
turies show that such use would bring retrogres¬ 
sion rather than growth to my life. 

Then, to do my part well while I am a Man, I 
must train my ^7 WilV^ to wisdom, and use the 
trained ^7 Will!^ I want to win the wider life. 


96 A Psychical Experience 

and my WiW^ is my way to do so. Then let 
me think a little. 

If it be wise, ^7 WilV^ does the daily work, 
whatever it be, each day as well as I can, and thus 
helps tomorrow’s work. ^7 Will^* seeks work 
that is worth doing and finishes the work begun. 
'7 JVilV* utilizes the time and the opportunity. 
*A JViir* seeks out the faults that hinder good 
work and personal; growth,—such as laziness, 
carelessness, procrastination, thinking little 
thoughts, doing little things, over-indulgence in 
mere amusement, and such like—and corrects 
those faults. ^7 JVill” works the mind, works 
the memory, works the purpose. ^7 WilV* reads 
books that are worth reading, that make one 
think. ^7 WilV^ takes such exercise and play as 
are needed for preservation and re-creation of 
health in body and mind, but keeps within wise 
bounds the hours thus used. ^7 WilV^ looks 
ahead, making the present serve the future. In 
short, the wise ^7 JViW* seeks the right develop¬ 
ment of the whole man, and thus fulfills the man’s 
part in making his personal Self ready for wider 
life and wider work in the world beyond earth. 

No man has ever found the limits of the per¬ 
sonal powers of immortal selfhood. No man has 
ever found the limits of the vast Universe in 
which this Earth is like a speck of dust. No man 


I Will 


97 


can realize the height to which an immortal per¬ 
sonal self may rise when freed from the limita¬ 
tions of Earth, with the whole vast Universe for 
living place and working place. And all the 
worth to which a finite being may rise through the 
ages of immortal growth is to be achieved by his 
own personal WiW\ Such is the dignity of 
personal Selfhood conferred upon each life by the 
Creator of All. 

WilV ^—two little words which we speak 
carelessly every day. Yet, when we think, how 
deep is their significance I 


PERSONALITY 




IV 


PERSONALITY 

V OLUMES have been written on personality. 

In this brief writing I deal with personality 
as selfhood. 

The outstanding fact in man’s life is his per¬ 
sonality. He is himself. No other man who 
lives, no other man who has lived during the cen¬ 
turies of man’s life on earth is or was just the per¬ 
sonality that he is. A wonderful fact, too, is this 
almost infinite variation in beings who so strongly 
resemble each other. How came it to be so? 
The only answer that will satisfy is that the Om¬ 
nipotent and Omniscient Will of an Infinite 
Creator made man a distinct, self-conscious 
personality. 

Men whose understanding is finite, theorizing 
from the knowledge of the Universe and of man 
which is a part of the progress of mankind, think 
that they can explain the whole of reality, and 
the origin of man, by systematic argument from 
premises which are assumptions of their finite wis¬ 
dom; they think that their finite, theoretical wis- 

lOI 


102 A Psychical Experience 

dom is an all-sufficient substitute for the thought 
of the Omniscient wisdom of a Creator; they think 
that they can find the Ultimate Reason for all 
things leaving out Omnipotent First Cause; they 
think that they can explain the Universe by their 
assumption that it is self-existent; they think that 
they can account for the conscious, willing, pur¬ 
posing, thinking personal self of man by evolu¬ 
tion of self-existent matter, or by mere expansion 
of an assumed vital push, impersonal, and there¬ 
fore wholly without will or purpose or intention, 
which, also by assumption, coexists with matter, 
then forces itself through matter which opposes 
its push, and, when it happens to get through, 
transposes itself, still without the intention to do 
so for it is impersonal, into untold millions of 
sentient personal selves; they think that by in¬ 
genious argument and profuse logomachy they 
can reduce Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipres¬ 
ent God to terms of a metaphysical theory. 

No metaphysical theory of a “world life” 
which splits up into the various forms of life 
which inhabit earth; no theory of a “life Princi¬ 
ple”, coexistent from eternity with the Universe, 
a vague impersonal force which, spreading like a 
universe-wide mist, happens upon a little world 
like our earth, and then, “as if” by previous in¬ 
tention, becomes now a tree, now a flea, now a 


Personality 103 

man; no such theory, I say, of an impersonal 
origin can account for the self conscious, willing, 
purposing, thinking personality of man. Such 
theories, and there are many of them mutually 
contradictory, inveigle man’s attention from time 
to time, but in the last resort no thought will 
satisfy the reasoning mind of man but the thought 
that he is made as he is by the will of an Omnipo¬ 
tent, Omniscient Creator, who willed that the 
life of man shall be the crown of.His creation, 
the finite, living image of his own infinite person¬ 
ality; who also suited the world upon which man 
lives to the needs of finite life, and to the develop¬ 
ment of finite personality. 

Man the finite image of his Creator? How is 
that? The reply is this—Man is made the finite 
image of his Creator not in his physical nature 
which is suited only to earth, but in the personal 
powers of his selfhood, which, though finite, are 
like in kind to the infinite powers of his Infinite. 
Creator. 

The created self is necessarily finite, for there 
can be but one Infinite Self. The finite being is 
not omnipotent, and therefore he fails often to 
use his powers well. The finite being is not om¬ 
niscient, and therefore often lacks wisdom in his 
thinking and in his doing; and man’s lack of wis¬ 
dom often brings great trouble upon himself and 


104 A Psychical Experience 

others. Man’s imperfections are a part of his 
finiteness. 

But why did not an Omnipotent Creator make 
the finite self as nearly perfect as a finite being 
may be? Think a moment. Would you wish 
that you and every other man and woman in the 
world were perfect, and therefore all alike? 
Would you like to have nothing to hope for, noth¬ 
ing to strive for, no future to which to look for¬ 
ward that could by any possibility be different 
from the past or the present because all your 
possible future is realized now? Would you lik^ 
to have no incentive to be or do anything, because 
you could not be any better or worse than you 
are, and whatever you do would be neither harm 
nor good to you? Would you like to have no 
interest whatever in any other human being be¬ 
cause you know he is just like yourself? Would 
you like to be incapable of emotion or of happi¬ 
ness because of the deadly sameness of the suc¬ 
ceeding days? Do you not think that the Om¬ 
nipotent and Omniscient Creator knew what He 
was about (I say it with reverence) when He 
willed that each human self be a consciously dis¬ 
tinct, and not a perfect personality? 

But almost infinite variety is not the chief en¬ 
dowment of finite personality. The chief endow¬ 
ment is the ability for self realization; and by 


Personality 105 

self realization I mean personal progress, devel¬ 
opment, growth, achieved by personal use of per¬ 
sonal powers. That ability, I say, is the greatest 
endowment of finite selfhood; but it does not 
necessarily follow that every self does in one short 
man’s life time achieve the growth which he is 
made able to achieve, for the will of the self is 
free will, and one personality may choose to make 
evil use of his powers, and to grow stronger in 
wickedness, while another chooses to grow strong 
in righteousness. Character is the self-expression 
of personality, and the man who is made a self is 
permitted to choose what his character shall be. 

But the Creator did not make human personali¬ 
ties free in will and purpose, did not make them in 
finite degree like his own fullness of personality, 
and then cast them into the universe as so much 
waste to be forgotten. He made them worthy of 
His Omnipotent and unremitting attention. And 
we may believe that He purposed from His crea¬ 
tion for each life who should develop to personal 
selfhood by the way which He ordained His per¬ 
sonal care and attention. He made each self able 
to learn, by reasoned deduction from the conse¬ 
quences to himself, to others, and to the world he 
lives on, of free will well and free will ill used. 
And He sees to it that each self shall have the 
teaching which in His wisdom that self needs. 


io6 A Psychical Experience 

He cares for human personality not by forcing it, 
but by teaching it. 

The history of this world of ours is not merely 
a record of events; it is also a record of strong 
personalities, and of their influence upon the prog¬ 
ress of mankind. It is a record of both selfish 
and unselfish leadership in the affairs of mankind. 
It is a record of growing personal wisdom in all 
departments of men’s effort. It is a record of 
the gradual emancipation, as the centuries pass, 
of the rights of personality. It is a chart of the 
errors, and of the wisdom of personal thought, 
will, and purpose in the past, for the study and 
guidance of the man of to-day. 

One personality in this earth’s history stands 
out preeminent; the personality of Jesus Christ, 
the one perfect Personality that the world has 
known. Because He was God’s Son He could be 
thus perfect. His divinity calls for men’s rev¬ 
erent worship. His human personality appeals to 
men’s personality as the one perfect ideal of 
human life. 

In the coming of Christ is evidence of the care 
of the Creator for finite human personality. He 
understands the nature of the being whom He 
made man. He knows that neither precept alone, 
nor example alone, will be man’s best teacher. 


Personality 107 

He sent Christ to men to teach them by both His 
precept and His example. 

And while this earth continues to be man’s 
dwelling place Christ will be man’s pattern, and 
man’s guide in man’s self-realization of human 
personality. 

Man profits by the teaching which His Maker 
provides if thus he chooses. Personality implies 
freedom of choice. Freedom of choice implies 
responsibility for the choice. Men’s personality, 
then, means responsibility, both to his better self, 
for he is able to choose wisely, and to his Maker 
who gives him that ability, for what he chooses 
to make himself. 

Man lives in the environment of earth. He 
deals with the actual problems of earth, physical, 
mental, moral and social. He develops his per¬ 
sonality by wise use of his own powers. He 
makes his end in view, and directs his thought 
and his work to the rewards of earth,— 
wealth, position, fame, power among men,—if 
thus he chooses. That end in view is well so far 
as it goes, for, undeniably, the work involved 
strengthens his powers of will and purpose and 
mind. But that end in view.may be pursued with 
little real regard to uprightness of personal char¬ 
acter; and that end in view is not broad enough 


io8 A Psychical Experience 

for the full development of man’s personality, 
for it narrows his outlook for his future down to 
this little world. 

Man the person, man the life, is more than just 
the man. We who are men know each other as 
human personalities. The Creator of Life knows 
the life as an enduring personal self, who is pur¬ 
posed by Him wider personal life beyond earth. 
He knows the life of man as an immortal per¬ 
sonal self, whose immortal personal powers are 
given to him for personal use through eternity. 

Then the earth life of self is but the beginning 
of immortal life, and the teaching of earth but 
the beginning of the life’s teaching. And the very 
experience which the man, the personality living 
with other personalities in the earth environment, 
dealing with the facts of man’s work, man’s 
thought, man’s ideals; the very experience which 
the man has is the teaching which is purposed by 
life’s Maker to prepare finally the immortal self 
for his first wider personal life, his wider thought, 
and wider work, in the world that is beyond earth. 

And the meaning to man of his selfhood is that 
he himself, since none but he can use his free will, 
and since he is given by his Maker ability to ac¬ 
complish the task, is to so utilize the opportunities 
and the teaching which the earth life as it is offers 
him, as to prepare his personal self for the wider 


Personality 109 

life beyond earth that is purposed for him by his 
Creator. If he chooses to profit well by his op¬ 
portunities and teachings, he, the self, is prepared 
when this physical body dies for the first wider 
personal life and work. If he chooses to misuse 
the teaching, he chooses, and it is his own choice, 
to live another life on earth in man’s flesh. A 
man’s life on earth is the self’s opportunity. He 
can fulfill his Maker’s purpose for him through 
the opportunity which is his this time. He can 
stubbornly refuse to profit by his opportunities 
again and again. He may need to teach him a 
penalty. He will be given the opportunities and 
the teaching that he needs until, of free will, he 
chooses wisely, lives his last life of man well, and 
is ready for the wider personal life purposed for 
him by a wise, beneficent and all-knowing Creator. 

Man’s personality brings responsibility both to 
the self, the immortal life, and to his Maker, for 
his choice of how he shall live this time on earth. 
He cannot escape this responsibility. He cannot 
fulfill it by being flabby, or by being negative in 
character. He must become firm, forceful, posi¬ 
tive, by personal work of the powers given him 
for use. His personality is an immortal selfhood 
made for growth. His personal powers are made 
adequate for his self-development throughout his 
immortal life. By personal growth achieved by 


no A Psychical Experience 

himself, personality, selfhood, fulfills his twofold 
responsibility. 

This is the faith that will help men who are 
finite selves beginning the journey of life. 

God lives. Infinite, Omnipotent, Omniscient, 
Eternal. He is the Fullness of Personality, and 
thus man’s personal God. 

He is Creator of an Universe that is not 
Himself. 

He is Creator of finite lives who are not parts 
of Himself. 

The selfhood of the finite life is made im¬ 
mortal selfhood by His will. 

The personal powers of finite self are made 
adequate for the self’s use through his immortal 
life. 

The finite self is made free to choose what he 
will do and be, and also made able to choose that 
which fulfills his Maker’s purpose for him. 

Growth of finite personality in wisdom, 
strength and worth, and that growth to be 
achieved by self development, self realization, is 
the Creator’s law for the life made by Him. 

The physical, mental, social, moral experience 
of man is willed by the Creator to be the self’s 
teacher. 

A man’s lifetime on earth is a God-willed op¬ 
portunity for the self to prepare, by the man’s 


Personality 111 

work of his life’s immortal powers, for wider per¬ 
sonal life, and wider personal worth than man 
may know. 

The love of the Creator for His creatures gives 
to every one the opportunity and the teaching 
which that self needs. 

His love purposes for not one the misery of 
failure and eternal punishment, but for each and 
all the joy of victory and wider life won by his 
own personal work for them. 

The Eternal Father helps His children when 
they ask Him for help with honest prayer. 

The Eternal Father helps His finite children by 
the precept and example of perfect human per¬ 
sonality given to men by His Son, the God-Man, 
Jesus Christ. 

This is an epitome in my own language of the 
thought given to men in their own words by per¬ 
sonalities in the wider life who were once men, 
for whom reincarnation in man’s body is a fact of 
remembered experience; who, through the teach¬ 
ing which God wills for the self while he lives as 
man on earth, learned how to prepare themselves 
for the wider life which they now live, and for 
its wider work; who say “We know that our word 
tells truth”; and who wish by their word to help 
selves who are still men to the wise thought, to 
the wise will and purpose, and to the loving faith 


112 A Psychical Experience 

in a personal God, their Heavenly Father, which 
will aid them in their own work for personal 
wider life. Their word is full of inspiration and 
vitality for men who will think. 

Think, then, you who are an immortal self, 
think hard; think for your man’s work, for it is 
part of your life’s work. Think for wise and firm 
will and purpose, for your will and purpose are 
your life’s will and purpose. Work your mind to 
find fine, high thought which will help you in your 
self-development to higher worth of Jjersonal 
character, for your character now is your life’s 
character now. Remember that while you think 
and work for your man’s welfare you can also, if 
you will, think and work for your life’s future 
welfare. 

You choose yourself what you will do and be. 
You can choose wisely if you will. 


OPTIMISM AND FAITH 





■>, 

• 




\. 







V 


OPTIMISM AND FAITH 

T he world is in turmoil. National envy, 
hatred and malice are obstructing a return 
to peaceful world conditions. Propaganda look¬ 
ing to the overthrow of all government is being 
spread everywhere. Capital and labor are fight¬ 
ing. Crime is rampant and bold, and respect for 
law is at a minimum because crime so often 
escapes punishment. Dishonesty and trickery are 
more powerful than honesty in civic, national, and 
international politics. Trade is far more than 
usually greedy and selfish. The ideals for which 
the world fought in the late war seem to be 
shunted into the background. 

Unnumbered thousands slaughtered in the mad 
rush of war, and by the cruel heartlessness of 
fanaticism; sorrow and suffering widespread; 
more unnumbered thousands driven from their 
homes, helpless and hopeless; mothers childless, 
children parentless, bemoaning the slaughter of 
their dear ones; gaunt famine; confiscation of pri¬ 
vate property by a conscienceless tyranny; murder 

115 


ii6 A Psychical Experience 

of priests, destruction of churches; how can such 
things be possible in immediate sequence to the 
complacent serenity of the preceding years? Yet 
they are ghastly facts. 

In the last years of the Nineteenth Century and 
the first years of the Twentieth, civilization was 
regarded as firmly established, and was expected 
to spread without opposition till it embraced the 
whole world. The wonderful achievements of 
science had made communication between conti¬ 
nents easier than it was a hundred years before 
between adjacent towns. Missionaries were 
spreading the gospel of Christianity over all the 
world. Commerce had grown to be a world 
affair. The peaceful pursuits of philosophical in¬ 
vestigation, of literature, of the fine arts flour¬ 
ished, and put forth wonderful bloom. Mankind 
was proud of his progress. 

And then, like a sudden thunder storm on a . 
summer’s day, one nation in the heart of civiliza¬ 
tion, a nation eminent in scientific, literary and 
commercial achievement, with mistaken ambitions 
and mistaken self-confidence set out to conquer 
the whole world by force of arms; with diabolical 
ingenuity used science for destruction instead of 
construction, and urged on the dogs of war to a 
conflict such as the world had never before seen. 

Through that war millions of human lives were 


optimism and Faith 117 

sacrificed, the world was impoverished, and 
hordes of radical revolutionists were encouraged 
to murderous acticity in Russia, and to the spread 
of their ruthless propaganda in all lands. 

To-day a part of the world is trying to recon¬ 
struct, and a part to bring about still greater dis¬ 
organization and destruction, and no man can 
foresee the immediate outcome. But does that 
imply a hopeless pessimism as to the future of 
mankind? 

Consider a little— This conflict, and its de¬ 
struction, were no greater in proportion to the 
population and civilization of mankind than oth¬ 
ers of which we have historical record. Its effects 
are more widespread because modern methods of 
communication have made mankind a far more 
compact body than formerly. We have to judge 
the future by the facts of the past. The world 
has always recovered in the end from its terrible 
conflicts, and its reconstruction periods have been 
evidenced by great advances in knowledge, in 
thought, and in vision. To-day, in all depart¬ 
ments of men’s effort knowledge is far greater 
than in any other reconstruction period, and the 
proportion of thinkers and men of broad vision is 
far greater. It is reasonable to expect, then, that 
the recovery from this world illness, though it 
may take a good many years, will be more rapid. 


Ii8 A Psychical Experience 

and the health of the world more firmly estab¬ 
lished than ever before. 

But why did this convulsion attack the world? 
It may be that mankind needed the shock. It may 
be that men had grown too conceited, too self- 
complacent over the progress of the last half cen¬ 
tury, and needed a rough awakening. It may be 
that too close attention to material prosperity 
had blinded them to the value of spiritual ideals, 
and they needed to have their eyes opened. 

And it is a fact that, during the war, high ideals 
governed the great majority of mankind. Men 
fought to rescue the world from a return to the 
times and ideals of the Goths and Vandals. They 
fought to uphold Christianity, and the brave loy¬ 
alty of self-sacrifice both in the field and in be¬ 
reaved and sorrowing homes; the brave loyalty, 
both personal and national, to the ideals for which 
they fought, was an uplift to the whole world. 

Those ideals, though they may be shunted into 
the background during the puzzlement of recon¬ 
structing a world, still hold a place in the minds 
of men. 

The problem of reconstruction is not that of 
merely restoring the world to its condition pre¬ 
ceding the war; it is the problem of making the 
world better and wiser than ever before. It is 
the problem of better understanding of man and 


Optimism and Faith 119 

of mankind, of better understanding of the 
mutual relations of men, personal, national and 
social; it is the problem of social justice; and in 
the solution of that problem man must be helped 
by high ideals, which will grow in content and in 
wisdom as they are progressively realized. 

Social justice has been an idea occupying men’s 
minds for years, and particularly during the last; 
years of the nineteenth century, and the early 
years of the twentieth. And wrong interpreta¬ 
tions of that sound and right idea have produced 
the Radicalism which seized the opportunity that 
the world conditions following the war afforded, 
ruined one country, and is seeking to overthrow 
all existing governments. This brings a seri¬ 
ous complication into the problem of world 
reconstruction. 

Man is a finite being whose wisdom is but finite. 
Man’s will and purpose are free powers, and his 
finite unwisdom often leads him into wrong or 
evil use of his free will and purpose. Man is the 
being who plans for his future. He seeks to make 
to-day serve the future. The future to which 
he looks forward is for him an ideal to be pro¬ 
gressively realized. His ideal may be a good one 
or an evil one, for he is free to choose and but 
finitely wise. If he is big his ideal is a big one; 
if he is little his ideal corresponds to his littleness. 


120 A Psychical Experience 

The business success which will provide for a 
man’s future and for that of his family Is an ideal. 
An honestly and well-governed community, civic 
or national, Is an ideal. Socialism, communism 
are ideals. Even a world without governments 
is an ideal to the mistaken Radicals. The Ideals 
which move masses of men are of broad scope, 
even If they are mistaken ones. This world would 
not be the bustling, busy, working world that it Is 
without ideals. Ideals are a living force in man’s 
world. Man Is a reasoning being who learns 
from the consequences of experiment In seeking 
to realize his Ideals. So the wrong ideals which 
men experiment with are finally condemned by the 
judgment of mankind, while the right ones live on 
and broaden in their meaning and value to the 
world with their progressive realization. 

So, although the present problem of recon¬ 
structing the world Is a puzzling one, there Is no 
cause for gloomy pessimism as to the future of 
mankind. The centuries of earth time are but 
moments in the life of mankind. In the past cen¬ 
turies he has learned much. He will learn more 
In the centuries to come. 

Man Is the creature of an Infinite Creator. He 
Is necessarily finite, for if he were not he would 
be as his Creator, which Is impossible. The Cre¬ 
ator suited the world upon which man lives to be 


I2I 


Optimism and Faith 

the residence of the being whom He willed should 
thereon develop to be man. I do not think we 
could conceive a being more suited to live and 
work upon the world as it is than man as he is. 
To be sure he errs in his will and purpose, in his 
ideals and in his actions; that is part of his finite¬ 
ness. But we know that he is able to learn, and 
does learn wisdom from the consequences of his 
experience. He is given that ability by the Wilier 
of his life and his powers. He has learned how 
to make enduring records of his thought and of 
his doings, records of his successes and his mis¬ 
takes in past generations; he has learned how to 
interpret those records in their bearing upon his 
individual and social life, and how to distribute 
his knowledge and his interpretations over the 
whole world. Mankind learns for the future by 
reasoned interpretation of the past. 

He has found the thoughts which have a benefi¬ 
cent influence upon his life; the thought of God, 
of worship and prayer, the thought of good and 
evil, the thought of right and wrong, the thought 
of duty, which brings the consciousness of an 
ought, the thought of personal life after bodily 
death. We must believe that he was so made by 
his Creator that he could not fail to find those 
thoughts, for how would he find them otherwise? 

And those thoughts beget ideals which refuse 


122 A Psychical Experience 

to be forgotten, though they may seem to be 
dimmed for awhile. They bring ideals of high 
personal character, ideals of religious duty, ideals 
of honestly efficient civil and national government, 
ideals of justice between man and man, ideals of 
a world where peace and harmony will reign in¬ 
stead of jealousy and discord. 

Man is made for the struggle which comes to 
him in this world as it is. In this world where 
thoughts and opinions clash, where wills and pur¬ 
poses clash, where man learns through work both 
physical and mental, where good and evil are 
facts with which he has to deal, there is no accom¬ 
plishment without struggle. Through that strug¬ 
gle the individual and mankind, who may be 
thought of as the larger man, learn wisdom, and 
strength, and purpose. 

Can we think for a moment that God made 
man and his world as He did without design in 
the making? Can we think that He forgets His 
children? Can we think that He designs that 
man shall ruin himself by his mistakes? Can we 
think that he designed for mankind unending warr, 
and bloodshed, and misery? Would such thought 
help in the reconstruction of the world? 

From the nature of man; from the wonderful 
scope of his personal powers; from the thoughts 
which he finds; from the ideals which those 


123 


optimism and Faith 

thoughts bring him; from the high personal char¬ 
acter which he achieves when he makes wise use 
of his powers, his thoughts and his ideals; we may 
infer that he is made for worth. May we infer 
from his mistakes that he is made for wicked¬ 
ness? Not if we believe in a good God. The 
fact that there is far more good than evil in the 
world refutes that inference. If it were not so 
mankind would have ruined himself long ago. 

What we need, then, in this time of puzzlement 
at the sad condition of the world, is faith in God; 
faith in the wisdom of His purpose; faith in His 
care for the creatures whom He made. He made 
them personal selves; they are therefore free in 
will and purpose. He made them finite; there¬ 
fore they will often err in wisdom. But he made 
them able to learn wisdom through their experi¬ 
ence in the world which He suited to their life. 
He does not force their wills and purposes, but 
He has provided them with ability to learn 
through their experience. Individual selves no not 
always learn in one lifetime, but mankind learns 
through the mistakes, as well as through the suc¬ 
cesses of men. Wrong ideas come to the front 
for a time. Men delude themselves by false 
ideals, and seek to impose those ideals upon oth¬ 
ers. Individuals pass away, but mankind lives on, 
and as the years pass the unsoundness of those 


124 A Psychical Experience 

false ideas and ideals becomes manifest to 
men and to mankind through the teaching of 
experience. 

Progress is the law for sentient, willing, pur¬ 
posing, reasoning mankind, and a pause in his 
progress, or a step backward but gives a firmer 
foothold for the longer step forward. The his¬ 
tory of the world shows this. 

The readjustment that is now in the making 
brings many puzzling problems. It takes time to 
bring nations and races to see the wisdom of 
curbing national and racial ambitions and jeal¬ 
ousies in the interest of general harmony. It 
takes time to show the Radical that his plunging 
steed, if unchecked, will carry him to a bad fall. 
It takes time to teach an ignorant proletariat that 
the aim of the sly and vicious propaganda with 
which he is regaled is to rob him of his birthright, 
his birthright of personality. The present gen¬ 
eration may not see the readjustment completed. 
But what of that? All great advances of mankind 
require time for their accomplishment, and a hun¬ 
dred years is but a moment in the lifetime of man¬ 
kind on earth. Pessimism as to the future only 
hinders, while optimistic vision will lead to cheer¬ 
ful work for that readjustment which the vast ma¬ 
jority of men wish to see accomplished. The 
selfish, envious, blood-thirsty ambitions of a small 


125 


optimism and Faith 

part of mankind cannot stop the progress of this 
world of ours. Dr. Snowden has well said that 
“Pessimism only looks at the world as it is to-day, 
forgetting the facts of history.” 

The optimism that will help in the readjust¬ 
ment of the world is more than hope; it is faith in 
the future well-being of mankind. And the faith 
that is the soul of that optimism is religious faith; 
faith in the God who, in spite of the vagaries of 
finite wisdom, purposes for the future of man¬ 
kind, though He self-limited His Omnipotence by 
making men free; faith in God whose wise pur¬ 
pose mankind will in the end fulfill because the 
very world conditions which man himself brings 
about teach men and mankind; faith in the love 
of God’s purpose, which will not permit men’s 
errors of will and purpose to ruin mankind, but 
leads mankind through the lessons which those 
errors bring to greater and greater wisdom; faith 
that reverent worship of their God, and honest 
prayer to Him, and high ideals of personal worth, 
and high ideals of personal, social, and national 
justice and harmony, were not put into men’s 
thoughts for naught or to be forgotten; faith that 
Christ’s teaching was not given to men to be for¬ 
gotten, or to be over-ruled by the false teachings 
of finite unwisdom; faith that, before earth fin¬ 
ishes its usefulness as the dwelling place of man- 


126 


A Psychical Experience 

kind, the will of man will be in harmony with the 
will of his Maker, and Christ’s Kingdom will be 
established in all lands. 

We in our finiteness can but dimly understand 
the ways of Infinite Purpose.; God understands 
and wisely governs His Universe. 

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